Pete Moye’
Arts Button

The Faculty Art Exhibit is now open to the public at the Cerritos College Art Gallery to anyone who would like to view a portrayal of instructors’ work.

The exhibit covers a wide variety of art that shows how diverse instructors are on their view of art.

Art and painting instructor Hagop Najarian painted oil on canvas art, titled, “Many Ways to Tell a Story.”

“There are different moods in this painting,” Najarian said.

“The (darker)-colored objects are more moody and quiet; the brighter ones are louder.”

Najarian painted a screeching bird on top of a house to display how loud it was protecting its own nest and the expression of how humans protect their loved ones.

The two humans in the painting are serenading the animals with their instruments. “We usually take it for granted with the sound of nature,” Najarian said.

“The painting is a new direction of where I’m going with how images are used to tell a story.”

Professor of art and design Kurt Miller had a piece displayed, titled, “Sacred Text Sacred Space.”

Observers from afar expect to see text from these six pieces of six works made of steel of 10-by-22 inches, each backlit with light to stand out, but in this case Miller cuts them out.

“Each of the pieces have cut off space that used to have text from six major religions,” Miller said.

“The reason I did it that way is I followed Buddhism and for a while my thoughts were gone to the notion of emptiness, having emptiness we void any kind of meaning.”

Life drawing Instructor Daniel Du Plessies’ piece of art was titled, “Don’t Wait too Long.”

“Much of my art deals with the theme called ‘vanytas,’ meaning passage of time,” Du Plessies said.

“If you notice in the frame and the artwork itself, there are flowers, leaves, fruit from 17th century artwork that stood for great ideals of beauty, but that may have a limited life span.”

Du Plessies made the frame out of wood and made the leaves, flowers, and fruit out of clay. Attached in the middle of the frame is a mirror-like oval object that shows a stormy impression with bubbles.

“It is the idea that time won’t wait too long, it won’t wait for anyone, do what you need to do,” Du Plessies said.

“This is a fairly dark work because of the coloration; I eventually painted this piece with layers of black cell vinyl paint, it’s a certain dark paint that absorbs the eye,” he said.

All of Du Plessies’ artwork has some element of nature. Lately, he said he has been using a broader content and contrasting nature with more elements.

MacDevitt produced a catalog that can be purchased for $25 and can be downloaded from the Cerritos College website for the art gallery, biographies, statements and insight on the artwork by the faculty such as Professor of Art and Design Bonnie Barrett.

Barrett said, “This shows how serious the faculty members are of their artwork and how seriously they are moving forward in the art community.”