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 

New Bulbs Spring 2025

 

newly bisque fired bulbs awaiting glaze

I unloaded my bisque kiln load last week and finally counted how many pieces were in it. I had installed 100 pieces in the faculty office area and my wall installation at home is short 12 bulbs, so my goal is to replace the home bulbs and have 30 ready for the Labor Day Open Studio event at my studio.

newly bisqued bulbs with spikes, sprigs, and some awaiting mixed media additions

I had forgotten that I had a bunch of bowls in the kiln, but besides those, I had 49 entirely new bulbs, plus nine that already had one layer of underglaze on them. As of today, I also have 11 greenware bulbs drying, and a few in progress. As long as I get them glazed this summer, I should be easily able to replace the bulbs I need and have options for the studio tour. 

some bulbs with the first layer of underglaze

The bulbs are a good fit for me for the academic year because they are small and I can finish them in shorter bursts of work time. I've not felt any pressure to come up with new ideas. My issue this summer has been more the opposite: I have trouble finding the time to try all the things I want to try.

chains and chain pieces to be added to bulbs

I would really like to spend some time making some more "politics" or "resist" type bulbs and screaming faces, but those tend to take more uninterrupted concentration for me to create. After work, when I'm squeezing in an hour or so to create these pieces, I don't always have the thinking energy to engage with the more thoughtful or challenging work.

new bulbs with spots for attachments, drips, sprigs, and piercings