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 

DoVA Student and Faculty Exhibition 2019

"Judas" by Jennifer Martinez, Winter 2019 hand-building

This coming Tuesday is the first day and opening reception of the annual Department of Visual Arts Student and Faculty Exhibition at Larson Gallery on the Yakima Valley College campus.

this cat portrait is a collaborative piece involving 16 different students from one class.

The show features work by students in all studio art and photography classes at YVC in the Spring, Summer, and Fall of 2018 and the Winter of 2019. Student work on display includes ceramic sculpture and functional pottery, paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and mixed media. This year's show also features at least one collaborative piece done by a whole class.

Portrait by Samantha Sugihara and other functional pottery and ceramic sculpture by YVC students

My student work includes an unusually high amount pieces from the hand-building portrait project, including work I've talked about before in this blog.

Portrait by Anjela Sevilla and work by other students

The show opens on Tuesday, April 30 with a reception from 5-7pm and awards at 6pm. The exhibition continues through May 25, 2019.

"Strider" by Isabella Johnson and tea sets by Kim Hansen and Ivy Shearer

The Larson Gallery is located on the corner of Nob Hill Boulevard and 16th Ave on the Yakima Valley College campus (across from Taco Time). The gallery is open Tuesday - Friday 10am - 5pm and Saturdays 1 - 5pm. The gallery is always free and open to the public.

Faculty corner in the exhibition featuring work (left to right) by David Lynx, John Bissonette, Chris Otten, Bruce Lindell, Rachel Dorn, and Meghan Flynn

The show also features faculty work from both full-time and adjunct faculty at the Yakima and Grandview campuses. David Lynx teaches online Art Appreciation, Asian Art History, and Art of Yoga. John Bissonette teaches drawing, painting, printmaking and Humanities classes, Chris Otten teaches digital photography, History of Photography, and Digital Design classes. Bruce Lindell teaches drawing, painting and Art Appreciation in Grandview. At the moment I teach clay classes and art history classes. Meghan Flynn teaches drawing, 2D and 3D design, and sometimes Art Appreciation classes.

Northwest Artists Ceramics Invitational

Next week I have work in an invitational ceramics show at the Robert Graves Gallery in Wenatchee. I took work up to the show last weekend and was surprised to find that more than half of the work already delivered to the show came from Yakima. I'll have to get in on the carpool next time around.

"Bounty" 2017

The show features work by myself, and other Yakima artists: Gary Dismukes, Eunsil Kim, Carolyn Nelson, Jan Crocker and Debbie Sundlee. When I dropped off my work, there was also work from Wenatchee artist, Ruth Allan. The card features work by Michael McClun, Gary Dismukes, and Jan Crocker. For some reason, neither the card nor the website lists all the artists' names, so there may be other people in the show.

The show opens Monday, April 2 with a reception on Friday, April 6 from 5-7pm. The show runs through April 26th and the gallery is open Monday through Thursday from 9am - 1pm. The gallery is in Sexton Hall on the Wenatchee Valley College campus. 

Art Club Juried Show & End of Quarter Firing

Art Club Juried Show

Escapism Juried Show

Last week the YVC Art Club installed their juried show, Escapism, in the hallway gallery of Palmer Martin Hall. The show runs through April 23 and is open whenever the building is open.

Escapism 3D work, featuring lamp by Les Delzer, bust by Emily George, dinner set by Sara Lawrence, fox by Chelsea Blodgett

The show features work by high school and college students in and around Yakima. Some of the work was completed during classes and some was done on the students' own time. This show is not the same as the annual Department of Visual Arts Student Exhibition at Larson Gallery in May.

  

Escapism Juried Show, 2d work on display

This show was organized by Art Club students. This was the first year and we had over 50 entires including painting, drawing, photography, and ceramics.

fox and bunny by Chelsea Blodgett

 The four ceramic items in the show are all made by students in my clay classes this quarter, though only two were actually made this quarter. The fox, by Chelsea Blodgett, was build for the second project in my flipped hand-building class and was taken out of the kiln within an hour or two of when it was put into the display case for this show.

Frog vase and dinner set by Sara Lawrence

One of my intermediate wheel students, Sara Lawrence, created this frog themed dinner set during the winter quarter, too. Her frog vase and dishes feature a glaze recipe she tested this quarter during class. Her work was out of the kiln at least a day before the show was installed.

Last Firings of the Winter Quarter 

Reduction fired work in the gas kiln (before unloading)

Today is Sunday, but I went in to unload and load kilns both today and yesterday. My students were told that the last day to glaze cone 10 reduction work in the gas kiln was Thursday by 3pm and the last day to glaze cone 10 or cone 04 work in the electric kilns was Friday 3pm. I also warned students that I would be loading the kilns during the day on Thursday and Friday and once they were full, they were full.

Batman, by Humberto Urrutia-Jr (before unloading)

My students and I finished loading the gas kiln on Thursday about 3:10. There were a handful of pieces that wouldn't fit in the kiln at that point, based on how and what we had to load. Moments later, an intermediate student walked in with her 10" tall piece ready to load. She was unhappy when I told her she could load it in the "oxidation" firing in the electric kiln. 

Sculpture with copper red glaze in reduction by Jordan Miller

Some of our glazes look different when fired in a reduction atmosphere vs the neutral atmosphere of an electric kiln. Copper Red and Shino glazes are particularly impacted. Reds in reduction will look green and transparent in the electric kiln.

3D printed turtle pencil holder by Chelsea Blodgett

An extra firing in the electric kiln is relatively easy to add, because the kiln is smaller and the kiln can be programmed to fire to temperature. The gas kiln is larger and requires hourly adjustments to the gas, air, and damper during much of the firing process. I did not offer to unload that kiln on Saturday and reload it with one piece in it to fire all day on Sunday.

Lady with flowers by Autumn Nugent (picture taken from inside the kiln before unloading)

I did, however, end up loading and unloading more than expect on the weekend. Next week is finals week Wednesday through Friday, but I am presenting at NCECA in Pittsburg on Wednesday and Thursday, so I will not be here for finals week. The upshot is that I have adjusted our finals due dates and, by extension, our firing schedule.

3D Printed vase in high temp oxidation firing by Humberto Urrutia-Jr

At the start of the week I had anticipated firing one of each type of kiln (cone 10 reduction, cone 10 "oxidation", and low fire), but by midweek it was clear we had more work than that, so I loaded an extra cone 10 firing in the smaller electric kiln.

cone 10 oxidation fired vase by Humberto Urrutia-Jr

This small electric kiln was too hot to unload on Friday when we were loading the second cone 10 in our larger electric kiln. I knew that I would be coming in to unload it and reload it with low fire work on Saturday, but the kiln was small and the load/unload would be relatively quick. 

oxidation fired crab (before unloading) by Cigdem Collins

I had just finished loading and had started the second cone 10 in the electric kiln on Friday morning, when a student came to me with a problem. For context, most students had finished glazing already and I only had about 5 students finishing work during class that morning. I had already checked in with every single student about what they were glazing. They all assured me their cone 10 work was done and they were glazing only low fire work.

Coil build low fire vase by Margarita Cruz

The student who came to me with the problem had spent a couple of days very carefully applying underglaze to her sculpture. She had already assured me, twice, that the 24" tall sculpture would be going in the low temperature firing. I just had to figure out how to fit it and some of its larger friends. 

low fire stuffed elephant sculpture by Margarita Cruz

The high temp kiln was at a little over 200 degrees when this student came out of the glaze room and explained to me that she had glazed her work with the high temperature clear, instead of the low temperature clear over the underglaze. She couldn't wash off the glaze because it would wash off the underglaze she had spent so much time on. She couldn't fire the work to a low temperature because the glaze wouldn't melt and become clear. I happen to know, from other students being confusing about firing temperatures, that this high temperature clear glaze looks rough and white when fired at low temperature.

student coil vase, low fired

So, of course, I ended up coming in on Saturday to unload the small high fire kiln and load and fire the low fire work. The large low temp kiln I had loaded on Friday was too hot to unload. I came in Sunday morning to unload the low temperature work (both kilns were cool, but the smaller kiln was easier to unload alone) and load one last high fire with just this tall piece and one small friend who had appeared Friday afternoon. 

too much glaze on a thrown piece in the large high fire electric kiln

 Raku Firing

3D printed vase (which didn't survive the firing well) with horse-hair decoration

Last week we also ran two class raku firing days. On Tuesday, students in wheel classes were able to fire their work, but somehow I didn't get any pictures of it. On Wednesday hand-builders fired. The students really seem to enjoy using horse hair on their work. 

Horse-hair 3D printed and hand-built bunny by Nadene Orlando-Urlacher

A few students also took advantage of the raku glazes and one that was particularly nice was a vase by Chelsea Blodgett. She used wax resist for the black areas and white crackle glaze for the rest. Her coil-built vase was modeled on Ancient Greek vases, I believe.

Vase and cat mug by Chelsea Blodgett

International Sculpture Day at Yakima Maker Space

Next month, Andy Behrle is organizing a sculpture exhibition at Yakima Maker Space in recognition of next month's International Sculpture Day. I will be installing my ceramic bulbs as a part of this exhibition, Sculpting The Valley. The opening reception is Sunday, April 1 from 6-9pm. 

My bulb installation will be set up a little differently to accommodate the Yakima Maker Space gallery.

Yakima Maker Space gallery is open Saturdays 10-2pm and by appointment, with special International Sculpture Day hours 11-5pm on April 24 and a guided sculpture tour from 4-5pm. The exhibition runs April 1-25, 2017. 

Central Washington Artists' Exhibition 2016

I just found out that I had four separate entries accepted into the Central Washington Artists' Exhibition opening in November at Larson Gallery.

Storyteller Jars & Spoons

I entered two sets of mugs and lidded jars, which means, I guess, that I actually got eight pieces in the  exhibition.

Storyteller Cups

This is the first time I've entered wheel thrown functional work in a juried exhibition. It feels a little strange, since I've thought of myself as a sculptor for so many years and not a potter.

Pedal/Petal

I also got two pieces of sculpture into the exhibition, so I suppose I can't entirely overturn my definition of my role as an artist.

White Pod

The CWAE opens November 5 with a reception from 3-5pm. The exhibition continues through December 3, 2016.

Storyteller Mugs at Boxx Gallery

Join me at Boxx Gallery in Tieton this Saturday for the opening reception of the Storyteller Ceramics Show. The reception runs from 11am - 4pm at Boxx Gallery on 616 Maple Street in Tieton.

Some of my storytelling mugs will be on exhibit and for sale. 

The exhibition will also feature ceramics by Jane Gutting, Delma Tayer, Mike Hiler, Carolyn Nelson, Matthew Alan, Debbie Sundlee, Gary Dismukes, Deborah Ann, Carol DeGrave, and Michelle Wyles. 

The reception will feature local poets Terry Martin, LeAnne Ries, Barbara Hershey. I am told the reception will also feature cookies. See you there.