DoVA Student Exhibition 2025

3D printed ceramic piece by Emily Mena, referending the Little Prince

The last week of May is the last week of the DoVA Student Exhibition at Larson Gallery on the Yakima Valley College campus. The show runs through May 31. The gallery is open Tuesday - Friday 10-5pm and Saturday 12-5.

The first room of Larson Gallery during this year's DoVA show

The show features work from YVC art students, specifically students who took Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Digital Photo, Design, and clay classes at YVC from Spring 24-Winter 25. Check out previous DoVA exhibtiions and student work here.

3D Design and Clay pieces at this year's DoVA show

Students showing clay (mostly my classes) represent students in Hand-building, Intro to Clay, Functional Pottery, Intermediate Wheel, Intermediate Hand-building, and Advanced Clay.  

Thing and Coraline by Jordan Fauver and a mechanical heart by Taylor Spaeth

I also have student work from 3D Design. Some of my favorite pieces are the ones where the student created something we haven't seen in the gallery before: a coil built scupture of Thing, a jumping fish, and a wearable marrionette head made of paper mache.

A wearable marrionette mask by Anthony Garvin

The show also features awards selected by art faculty, Larson Gallery staff, and the college president. We gave quite a few awards for this year's show. I don't have a count of how many pieces or students are in this year's show, but I estimate that perhaps more than 400 students had an opportunity to take one of our many art and photo classes during the 4 quarters represented in the show.

3D Design work from Grandview students

One of the exciting things about this year's show is that Grandview students were well-represented in this year's show. For a long time, students in Grandview had limited studio art options, but now we have a full-time studio art instructor, Monika Lemmon, who offers 2D and 3D design classes, as well as Drawing and Painting classes. 

An Otterable mention award winner and pottery in the DoVA show

With three art and one art/photo instructor on two campuses, students have both a variety of class options and a variety of approaches to the same class. Counting Spring of 2024 (this show) and Spring of 2025 (next year's show), students may have had three different instructors for 3D design. It's fascinating to see how differently we approach the same class.

Installation view in the second room of Larson Gallery, featuring stop motion animation videos 

Larson Gallery also has a new director this year, and after the show, the art/photo faculty discussed with her some ways to plan and streamline the process for collecting and showing work for next year's show. 

Fish an wildlife section of featuring clay and 3D Design pieces

One of the challenges we face is that most students have never shown their work before, so they aren't always sure what to expect. In my clay classes, much of the work isn't ready until the last week of the quarter, or even the first day of finals, when we unload the last glaze kilns, so we have to wait until the last day to do the paperwork.

Jumping fish by Macy Snodgrass (this this is a challening position!)

This year, for a variety of reasons, including staffing changes in Larson Gallery and the Humanities Department, we didn't have consistent processes for collecting artwork and information about artwork, which led to some confusion, at least on my end.

Yoda by Ethan and Amber

Despite this, and despite the fact that a couple of pieces that I was expecting weren't returned for the show, we had nearly 30 clay pieces, from nearly 20 artists, as well as thirteen 3D design pieces (including 3 stop motion animations). 

Functional Pottery pieces

I have no iea how many prints, drawings, or paintings were shown because they were on 10 different walls in the two rooms of the gallery. We have a lot more drawing and painting classes and students than clay classes and students in a given year.

Kiss by Taylor Spaeth with kintsugi decoration/repair

If you haven't already, I hope you are able to get to Larson Gallery next week to see the show. Students who have work in the show can pick it up from Larson Gallery from June 3-7, after which point we will bring the work back to Palmer Martin and keep it for a year. Students can pick it up until April 2026, when we start preparing for the 2025-26 DoVA show.

ceramic sculpture and pottery 

Last Week to See: DoVA Student Exhibition 2022

Medusa by Evelyn Ayala-Frutos (President's Award)

This week is your last opportunity to see the YVC Department of Visual Arts Student and Faculty Exhibition at Larson Gallery.

Ake's by Liliana Morales (Best of Show)

The exhibition is up through Saturday, May 28. Larson Gallery is open 10-5 during the week and 1-5 on Saturday. 

detail of how the cups sit in the saucer for Ake's

The exhibition features work by students in clay, photography, drawing, and painting classes in Spring 2019 through Winter 2022.  

Small Coils by Emily Chaidez

The work in this show is especially impressive given the unusual conditions when much of it was made. The earliest work dates back before the pandemic, as we were collecting work to show in Spring 2020, but that show was canceled at the last minute. Some of those students and the online students from Spring 2020-Spring 2021 showed their work in an online DoVA show last spring.

Leatherface bust by Elizabeth Harris

Students in online classes during the pandemic also had the opportunity to show their work in this show. Most of the work is from students who took classes at least partly on campus this Fall and Winter. These students were dealing with classes taught on campus but with 3' social distancing and masking. Most of these classes were also hybrid, meaning part of the class was online and part was on-campus.

Melted Candle by Garret Duffield 

To make things extra interesting, we have more faculty than usual represented in this show. I taught in Fall, but Jeff Kent took over for me in Winter while I was on medical leave.

Teapot and teacups by Adriana Barcenas

Also in Winter 2022, our drawing and painting instructor, John Bissonette accepted a new position out of state, so H.R. Emi taught on-campus painting classes for us. 

Still life by Helina Hahn (honorable mention)

Our drawing and design instructor, Meghan Flynn also accepted a position out of state. Both Meghan and John taught online this year (but somehow got left off the program for the show).

Sick Dog by Savannah Ross (honorable mention)

In fact, Chris Otten, our photography instructor was the only full time instructor who is still teaching full time for us from Yakima at the end of the year. 

Raku Vase by Elizabeth Ortega

I plan to be back in Fall and we've hired a new drawing, painting, and printmaking instructor, Kayo Nakamura who will start in Fall.

Dragon Portrait by Elizabeth Ortega (Janice Buckler Memorial Award for Clay)

Despite the pandemic and faculty switcheroos, the show is impressive (and that's not just me saying that, YVC President Linda Kaminski has said that on at least two occassions, once to me at the opening reception and again later at the Board of Trustees meeting).

Abstract Roses by Savannah Ross (ASYVC Purchase Award)

Though this is the first fully in-gallery DoVA show in the new Larson Gallery, which is quite a bit larger than the old gallery, the student work still manages to fill the space nicely.

Oil Castle by Leah Kuhlmann

There is lots to see and some work to purchase, though the ASYVC student government was generous with their purchase awards, choosing 8 individual pieces to join their permanent collection.

Untitled by Ashley Boroff

In this post, I've highlighted lots of pottery. Students whose work is represented took Functional Pottery from me or from Jeff Kent, Hand-building from me or from Jeff, or Intro to Clay from me. 

Penguin Christmas by Bianca Evangelista

There are also two works by community helper "students" Les Delzer and Betty Thurman (who is also our hourly employee in the studio). 

Lamp by Les Delzer, mugs and vase by Noah Fleek

Both Betty and Les were invaluable to both me and to Jeff in keeping the studio running smoothly during the early days of my cancer diagnosis and during the sudden transition from me to Jeff during winter quarter.

Blue pottery set by Betty Thurman

Jeff only agreed to take over the clay classes about a week before they started in January and only got access to the studio and the online components of the class after that. Luckilly he had taught before, though not online, so he was able to take over without much prep time.

Lovers Teac Set by Julia Lara

Admission to Larson Gallery is free, so stop by this week before the show ends. While you are on campus, you can also stop by the Yakima Valley Middle Schools Art Exhibit at the old Larson Gallery (Larson Gallery Workshop). 

Elephant by Crystal Preciado and Garden Tea Set by Kyree Wright

DoVA, Clay Sale, New Work, Last Chemo & Preparing for Surgery

Department of Visual Arts Student & Faculty Exhibition

Back of the DoVA postcard featuring ceramic dragon by Eli Ortega

Next Tuesday, May 3 from 5-7 is the opening reception for the Department of Visual Arts Student and Faculty Exhibition. This show features work from students in Yakima Valley College's online and on-campus art and photography classes from the past year (or maybe two). This year's show includes lots of ceramics and photographpy, as well as drawing, painting, and design work.

front of the DoVA postcard, featuring photography by Hingry Mendez

The art program has had an intensely strange time since the last DoVA student exhibition at Larson Gallery. The Spring 2020 show was cancelled because of the pandemic. The Spring/Summer 2021 show was online, though some work was in the gallery, making it a bit of a hybrid show. This year's show is our first "regular" show since Spring 2019 and our first "regular" show in the new Larson Gallery.

my most recent work, AC Cactus, featured in the DoVA exhibition

I'm calling the show "regular" in quotation marks because it still doesn't feel quite normal. We've been moving our classes slowly back to campus, but I only taught on campus in fall. I've been on medical leave since January, so I feel unusually detached from the goings-on in the department. Additionally, both our drawing and painting instructor, John Bissonette, and our drawing and design instructor, Meghan Flynn have accepted full-time positions out of state and are no longer living in Yakima. Of the four full-time faculty who were teaching for YVC in Fall, only our Photograph instructor, Chris Otten, is still working full-time for YVC this Spring (though I plan to be back in Fall).

New Work

I like how this sculpture looks different from different angles

I finished a couple of sculptures this week. The one I have at Larson Gallery for the student show was started and finished during my chemo treatment. I started building it in January, while I was doing the AC infusions. I glazed and fired it during the taxol infusions and finished putting it together before my 12th and final Taxol infusion. This sculpture isn't about cancer or chemo, like some the work I started building since, but it feels chemo-y to me because of when I worked on it.

thought not all the angles work as well as each other

This sculpture is actually based on the form of an old sculpture (now broken) from college. This version is much smaller, brighter, and with a very different surface, but when I built it I wanted to revisit the old form or shape of the broken sculpture. 

I used another sculpture in progress to hold up this one as the epoxy set.

I knocked off the top section while building this sculptuure and decided it would be stronger if I didn't try to reattach the wet clay at that stage. Instead, I kept the sculpture in two pieces until after glazing and firing. This week I joined the two together using epoxy.

This sculpture was fun to build, to show some techniques for moving the weight of the sculpture out away from it's starting point, but I'm not sure I'm as happy with the finished effect.

I also finished glazing and firing a second sculpture. This one I started building back around June of 2021 when I made a series of time lapse videos of my could building process to use in my clay classes (you can check out those videos at the link). I have more work waiting to be glazed, fired and finished, including a whole bunch of port-a-cath bulbs.

a plethora of port-a-cath bulbs getting their first underglaze coats

Clay Sale

The Spring clay sale was yesterday, April 28, from 11-6 outside of the Palmer Martin building (20). The date for the sale had to be moved up because of YVC's computer system transition to CTCLink that will be happening in May. I lost track of the sale a bit because I am not teaching this quarter. I also couldn't attend yesterday because I was in Seattle getting an MRI and meeting with my surgeon.  I'm looking forward to being there for our next sale in the Fall.

clay sale poster for Spring 2022

Last Chemo & Preparing for Surgery

My last chemo infusion was this past Wednesday! I am very happy to be done and I'm very ready for feeling good next week and having an immune system I don't need to worry about for a while. I was surprised that both my oncology nurse and my surgeon said that I should be basically done being immune compromised as soon as next week, though my nurse reminded me that I can still catch COVID the same as anyone else.

My friend Kelly took me to my last chemo appointment, which made it more enjoyable

Yesterday's MRI showed significant decrease in my tumor size. In December, my last MRI showed the largest dimension of the tumor was 45 mm. That's a bit larger than a golf ball (I just looked it up, the diameter of a golf ball is 42.67mm). Now the largest dimension is just 12 mm, a bit smaller than the length of a peanut (because I had a peanut handy). The MRI also showed no visual evidence of cancer in my lymph nodes.

a peanut, measuring about 15mm, and a bottle of peppermint measuring about 45mm

After the MRI, I met with my surgeon who couldn't feel my lump (we didn't have the MRI results yet at that time). We discussed the surgery plan and there's more to it and it will take more time than I realized. And disappointingly, it also isn't scheduled yet, I'm waiting for a call on that, hopefully today.

my studio assistant, thinking about drinking the glaze water

The surgery will still be outpatient, but they want me in Seattle the day before to place a Savi scout (the thing they tried and failed to put in my lymph node back in February). Then they want me to stay in Seattle the night after my surgery in case there are any complications. The surgery will have two parts. My surgeon will remove the lump with the Savi scout and hopefully get clear margins, meaning there's no cancer at the end of what they remove. She'll also do a sentinel node biopsy, squirting dye into the tumor to and letting it go to the lymph nodes. Whichever lymph nodes have the dye, she'll then remove those as well. She thinks it will probably be three nodes. 

My studio assistant, wondering why I never let her drink the glaze water

After the surgery, the lump and the lymph nodes will be tested to see if the lump has clear margins. If there is cancer at the edge of the lump, they'll need to do a second lumpectomy and take more out. They'll also check the lymph nodes. If they are all clear of cancer, I'm done with that step, but if any of the nodes have cancer, they'll have to do a second surgery and take out more nodes. Apparently just 25% of of the time the chemo gets the cancer totally out of the lymph nodes. That number looks bad for my chances of having a second operation, but I've got two things going for me. First, the tumor shrank a lot and second, they couldn't see cancer in the lymph node all the way back when I had an ultrasound in February. Unfortuantely, we just won't know if I'll need a second surgery (for either reason) until after the first one. In general, there's a 10-20% chance I'll need more surgery on the lump and 75% chance I'll need more nodes out. If I do need a second surgery, it will be a second trip to Seattle (I had originally thought they would be able to test the node and lump the same day and extend my surgery or get me back in the same day).

port-a-cath bulbs, first coat of underglaze

There's yet more possible bad news. If they have to take out a lot of lymph nodes, my chances of lymphedema (chronic swelling in my arm) will increase significantly, by 20-30%. The surgeon recommends, if we do have to take out more lymph nodes, that I have a plastic surgeon do a procedure to reroute my lymph system. This procedure is apparently not covered by insurance, but does reduce my chance of lymphedema down to 5%. We don't need to decide on that now, and I'm going to start by hoping that I'm one of the lucky 25% who don't need to have more lymph nodes out. 

blue port-a-cath bulbs, first coat

The other thing that surprised me about the surgery is the timeline. I had, for some reason, though we were talking about 4-6 weeks between the end of chemo and the surgery, but it looks like it can be just 2.5 weeks after chemo ends. I'm anxiously waiting for a call from the scheduler, because I want to do it as soon as possible. It seems like leaving it alone just allows it to start growing again. I feel fine enough. Though I was kind of looking forward to exercising and taking it easy (and enjoying flavor again soon, hopefully) through the month of May, if given the choice, I'm anxious to move on to the next stage.

port-a-heart bulbs, first coat

I had three appointments in Seattle yesterday, the MRI, the surgery consult with the doctor, and a meeting with the nurse to go over stuff I need to do before and after the surgery. Of course I need to stop eating at a certain point and get a COVID test, but I was a bit surprised how restricted I would be for a week or two after the surgery. I thought the restrictions would be similar to those I had during chemo (no heavy weights, walk but maybe don't run, etc), but apparently they want me doing even less after surgery, no weights, no lifting, the nurse even warned about not moving my arms too much while walking (shrug).

the only glazed port-a-cath bulb

I did get confirmation that I will need radiation and probably 6 weeks of it. We still don't totally know whether we'll do it in Yakima or Seattle. Sean is very concerned that Seattle will have better technology, but we haven't met with the Yakima radiation people yet. It sounds like another set of meetings we need to schedule for May. This brings May's grand total of cancer related doctor appointments up in the range of 6-10 depending on the results of the surgery and when my oncologist wants to see me again (after surgery).