From Sasha Barrett’s ceramic drones to David Harper Clemons’ metal medallions, Spokane Falls Community College Fine Arts Building has been used to host a variety of artists. Now the gallery opens with a different goal in mind.
This Spring quarter, the gallery provides a platform for Fine Art students to manifest their personal frame of reference through visual artistry. The newest exhibition is made up of art that students have made within their respective mediums. The pieces presented by each student are emblematic of the various technical skills they have learned during this program.
Jonah Eberle, 20, is an art student who will be graduating with a certificate in fine arts. He shared his experience with the art community at SFCC and the skills he developed.
“I feel like I have gained confidence and the ability to talk about my art better with other people,” Eberle said. “The program has been meaningful to me because of the community I have felt from it.”
Eberle has spent his time in the art program developing hands-on skills with multi dimensional, sculptural, and metallic art. Each artist will submit works from their medium of choice along with a piece in a separate medium.
“I like working with metal, I am submitting some brooches that I’ve made but I am also submitting a 2D work,” Eberle said. “If your emphasis is on 2D in the associates or certificate program you have to submit two 2D pieces as well as one 3D piece and if you’re in a sculptural or 3D focus you have to submit one 2D piece.”
For many students, this is the first time their art will be displayed inside a gallery. Much like previous exhibits, the art the students submit will be on sale and the artists will receive commission for any works sold.
“I haven’t ever been in a gallery before,” Eberle said. “But it’s just one of those steps needed as an artist in order to make it.”
Guye Stevens, 23, is graduating this year with an associates in the fine arts at the end of this quarter. He spoke about his expectations and experiences in the program.
“I never considered art as a career before and I wasn’t sure what to expect,” Stevens said. “It’s been a sort of evolution since I started here, now I’m more developed with my different mediums and all the concepts I’ve explored here.”
Stevens plans to pursue art at a 4 year school in the following year.
“My next step is to get my bachelors down in Portland,” Stevens said. “I’ll be majoring in illustration, binary, and 3D art.”
The art program here at SFCC has helped guide the artists of the college to unlocking and mastering their skills. Eberle and Stevens share their current views on becoming artists.
“I feel like I’m finally moving forward as an artist and that I can make it as an artist,” Eberle said.
The gallery and classes alike, have served as a way to build connections and create community between fellow artists, and have given a place for artists to create discussion and critique.
“It’s cool, and exciting to get to see everyone’s art in the gallery,” Stevens said. “After two years from where we started out and now we’re at this point where our art is in a gallery.”
Through Spokane College’s senior waiver program Michelle Bournonville is able to participate in available art classes. Bournonville is taking a jewelry class this quarter, and shares her thoughts on the gallery.
“Personaly I love seeing what everybody else does,” Bournonville said. “Because it inspires everyone, the students here and all the people who visit the school.”
Bournonville recounts her experience in the jewelry class here on campus.
“Theres a lot of tools that people have never used,” Bournonville said. “One student asked the teacher if he could light the torch for her, but the teacher said ‘no you have to learn how to do it.’ Eventually the students got brave. That’s what art is about, art makes you brave.”
The gallery is now open for viewing from May 20 to June 11.
