Somewhere within Bakersfield College’s Grace Van Dyke Bird Library, a barren tree is sprouting blood-shot eyeballs from the tips of its branches.
Also in the same part of the library, there seems to be a vortex of construction cones, electrical outlets and light fixtures. Artist Frida Kahlo is in the library with a round window embedded in her head.
Also there is an emaciated, bug-eyed dead alien spewing from its mouth a lightening bolt of blue fluid with an anguished face at the top of the spout.
However, these figures and objects have been rendered on canvas for the enjoyment of patrons of the eclectic visiting BC’s Wylie and May Louise Jones Gallery, located in BC’s Grace Van Dyke Bird Library, according to Margaret Nowling, curator of the gallery that is showcasing the latest artwork by BC students. The exhibit runs April 18 – May 10.
“There is no theme to this exhibit; it is an eclectic mix,” Nowling said.
BC graduate and current CSUB art major, Cheryl Wingereid said that she really admired the non-traditional approach featured in the exhibit. She also appreciated the appearance of sculpture at the showing.
“They usually don’t have any sculptures,” Wingereid said. “They haven’t had any in a long time,”
BC art student Eddie Felix, 19, whose work, “A Wrong Turn” is part of the showing, said that he tries to infuse a depth of emotion into his artistic perspective of the world’s condition. A completed work, he says, provides him with a sense of catharsis.
“I may feel lost and confused about things,” he said. “But I gain a sense of peace when I finish.”
Felix’s acrylic on canvas, “Wrong Turn,” features a bloody-headed alien, body lying flat underneath a lime-green sun. To the right of the painting is a feces-spattered toilet with a bedraggled, emaciated, wind-swept figure sitting at the top of the toilet.
A brown cross embedded in a gory heart emerges from the bowl along with a world globe. All of the objects and figures appear to be melting in a fire of lavender, purple, red, black, pink, and blue splatters.
BC art student Rita Barraza’s acrylic on canvas, “Thinking about Death,” is a tribute to Hispanic artist Frida Kahlo. In Barraza’s painting, Kahlo’s feral-looking, singular-browed head is surrounded by foliage, and a round window is embedded in her forehead. A benign-looking skull with bones can be seen in the window.
“I love Kahlo’s history and her art,” Barraza, 27, BC undeclared major said. “It was different and creative.”
BC graduate and California College of the Arts-bound Joseph Roseberry, 20, said that his photography, in particular his photo, “I Find No Peace,” is the natural outcome of a subconscious and random scouring of the world.
“I shoot without direction,” Roseberry said of much of his work.
BC art student and retired BC math professor Rob Parsons admitted simply that it was all in fun creating his cardboard work, “Cool Jazz–Opus I” for Rebecca Edwards’ sculpture class, but it was also an affectionate tribute to his musician girlfriend who plays the string bass for the Bakersfield Symphony.
His class assignment was to create a structure as wide and as tall as his own bodily frame without glue but with joints. With these parameters in mind, along with an interest in the Berkeley Breathed cartoon, “Bloom County,” with its character, Opus, and, of course, a desire to pay loving tribute to his girlfriend, Parsons built his structure.
“It was just fun,” Parsons said.
The exhibit of student art at the Wylie and May Louise Jones Gallery in the Grace Van Dyke Bird Library is open Monday through Thursday from 1 p.m. through 5 p.m and Friday from 1 p.m. through 3 p.m.