By Bethany Peterson/nw news editor
One of NW Campus’ longest-serving professors is using the newest art display area to exhibit his blend of old and new art techniques.
Art professor Eduardo Aguilar’s work will be on display until March 12 in the Art Space in the Walsh Library during normal library hours.
“When I first started doing portraits in grammar school for others, usually gratis, they would give me a snapshot, and I would make a life-size portrait of the head,” Aguilar said.
Throughout his art career, he has continued to create portraits.
“I really enjoy capturing the human image,” he said.
Aguilar’s grandmother is the subject of the middle portrait in the exhibit, La Abuela Mere, that he did while completing his master’s degree. He first drew the portrait in graphite, then painted over it with acrylic washes so the graphite would show through.
“It was on my mother’s living room wall for 25 years,” Aguilar said. “When she died, I brought it home.”
La Abuela Mere is the oldest piece in the new Art Space.
Creating the Art Space has been an idea for a long time, said Sandra McCurdy, director of library services on NW Campus.
“Art and libraries go hand in hand,” she said.
The idea started taking form last semester when art associate professor Winter Rusiloski put one of her paintings up in the library.
“It was really casual,” she said. “I just hung a piece up.”
From there, things just fell into place, McCurdy said. Shorter shelving to make the work more visible from all parts of the library became available from South Campus. A request to repaint a part of the wall a better color for displaying artwork got fulfilled.
And the art faculty responded to Rusiloski’s request for volunteers to fill the space.
Besides Rusiloski, Heidi Lingamfelter and Malone Samuels have also put artwork up over the summer and earlier this semester.
“It is intended to be a space only for faculty work,” Rusiloski said.
Since guest artists’ pieces usually fill the Lakeview Gallery, faculty work is not seen as often, Rusiloski said.
“It’s fun,” Aguilar said. “[The Art Space is] a small space, so it’s not a lot of work.”
Aguilar started working for TCC when NW Campus opened in 1976. Since then, much has changed including introducing new methods to his creation of art. In 2004-5, he received a faculty professional development leave.
“I was going to learn how to work with technology in creating new media,” Aguilar said.
During his leave, he created a photo portrait of an old friend, Blandina Cardenas, who had just become president of the University of Texas-Pan American.
Soon afterward, he created a portrait of Dr. Leonardo de la Garza, TCC’s previous chancellor. Creating the portrait required a lot of computer work. Aguilar took many photographs of de la Garza and the background from different angles and heights.
“I took all these photographs and loaded them into Photoshop and joined them all together to create a life-size portrait,” Aguilar said. “All in all, I believe I joined 11 different views to create the life-size work.”
He printed the final result on the media department’s giant printer. The two printed portraits are part of his series of Texas Latino college presidents.
So far, the Art Space is off to a good start, McCurdy said.
“The displays have been fantastic,” she said.
