Published 2011-01-31T20:56:00Z”/>
Tim Kerber
The unusually tranquil showroom in the Third Floor Gallery of the Bell Memorial Union now displays a wide range of media – painting, drawing, printmaking, inking, glasswork and sculpting.
This is Chico State’s annual Master of Fine Arts exhibit, presenting the work of 12 students in the program.
No particular theme connects the various works of art, which is meant to provide gallery visitors a possible glimpse into the future of art, said Graduate Program Coordinator Cameron Crawford.
“The goal of many artists is not to produce one piece, but to show off a bunch of their work at once,” Crawford said. “Ideally, an artist likes to have an exhibition where they can put up several of their works. So this is kind of like a snapshot, a sample tray of what the artists are working on at the studios.”
Crystal Keesey entered the MFA program as a photographer but now specializes in glass. Her piece on display is a mirror with the words “Now What” shown where a reflection would be.
“Initially I started doing light sculptures, so I was trying to sculpt with light rather than paint with light,” Keesey said. “Photography means writing with light, and I wanted to take that to three dimensions.”
Keesey’s biggest inspiration is the artistic process.
“The actual act of creation inspires me the most,” she said. “There’s nothing I’d rather do than have some materials and create something from those materials.”
MFA student Chelsea Gilmore’s piece is a dystopian landscape that uses a minimalistic approach.
“I want to show the landscape as a secondhand experience,” she said. “Something that we see through in photographs or see through a car’s window while driving down a highway. Something that’s part memory and part reconstruction, but it’s not 100 percent authentic.”
Gilmore uses her medium to enhance her message.
“I focus on using a lot of glazes in my paintings to make it look really smudged,” she said. “I like them to look slightly ephemeral, like they’re not entirely there. Kind of like the way I feel we are turning the landscape into a product that’s not entirely there, something we’re changing, diluting, processing.”
Other artists with works presented include Cyrus Lemmon, Megan Moore, Joshua Olivera, Lisa Rosenstreich, Maxwell Stolkin, Azadeh Amiri, Mariam Pakbaz, Ruby Rudnick, Tim Adams and Amie Rogers.
The MFA gallery is open through Feb. 16, with a reception a at 5 p.m. tomorrow.
Tim Kerber can be reached at