South students bring their best in competitive show

Nicolas Bachelder, Jim Morrison
Photo by Justin Gladney/The Collegian

By Kelli Henderson/entertainment editor
The South Campus art department gave out $1,200 worth of awards at the student art show April 26. Students Christine Acebo and Lydia Pendleton won second place and best in show, along with many other winners.

More than 120 pieces were submitted with students allowed to enter up to three pieces each.
Guest curators Jordan Roth and Susan Roth Romans from Ro2 Art in Dallas made the final selections. Christina Rees, who runs Fort Worth Contemporary Arts at Texas Christian University, judged the show.

South fine arts chair Joshua Goode said the entered art pieces were looked at thoroughly because the larger art world runs the same way.
“We try to make it as close to a professional show as possible to help prepare the students for what they will experience after TCC,” he said.
“It also teaches them how to be more selective about what they choose and really think hard about if they want to submit a drawing, a painting, a sculpture, a little bit of both because most of our students are in more than one class — so to really pick out what they think their best representation is.”

Though many students entered their work, not all of them could be accepted into the show.

“For those who actually don’t make it into the show,” he said. “I hope that they see … it is opinion-based. Although your work was not chosen, that you have to pick yourself back up, dust yourself off and keep trying. And that opportunities will come, that it isn’t a death sentence. Get used to a little bit of rejection in the art world. It is always good because it always happens.”

The student winners were not placed in any specific categories. Going along with real-world practices, all art media were placed against each other.

Student artist Dustin Box was given an honorable mention for his piece, “Overlooking.” The oil-on-canvas piece was created as an assignment in Goode’s class.

“What I did was I kind of played a little bit with the colors and changed it up and made it what I thought it would look like,” he said. “I wasn’t real familiar with what the picture was of. I just changed the color of the buildings to slightly resemble the campus here, and I named it ‘Overlooking’ because I just imagined sitting over the hill overlooking at everything.”

Student artist Becky Spicer received an honorable mention for her piece, “Family Portrait” and third place for “Intaglio.”

“Family Portrait” is an oil-on-canvas portrait of her daughter’s breasts and torso, her son-in-law’s bottom half, their dog as the head and their naked roommate held in the right hand. Spicer said it was her daughter’s idea, and she just went with it.

It was the most controversial piece of the show, said Goode. Spicer said she knew it was either a hit or miss with the audience.

“You know, I figured that was either going to go or it was going to flop. It was either you love it or you hate it kind of a deal. I thought it was a contender,” she said.

Her third-place winner, “Intaglio,” is a four zinc plate print on one piece of paper that has been scratched and was created in one of her classes.

“I worked on that quite a few days,” Spicer said. “Working on the plates, bringing them up, changing them because they started pretty simple, then I kept adding texture.”

The idea for the plates came from the simple surroundings she saw frequently.

“I started print this semester with the idea,” she said. “I’ve always loved Texas landscape, especially in winter when the bales of hay are up. I just love the geometric shapes of the bales of hay and the fence line in the long drive to Houston and back. So I’ve just always been intrigued by it. I’ve painted it and drawn it other ways so I brought that in to print class.”

The show will be on display until May 3. Because of the gallery’s restricted hours, for more information, contact Goode at joshua.goode@tccd.edu.