Art at Los Medanos College

This work, by student Gabriel Linares, illustrates an end-of-semester project in Ken Alexander's ART 12: Design Drawing course. The assignment specified that students must design an interior functional space in one or two-point perspective with a human figure for scale. In addition, students were to select an architectural style for the room and its furnishings, in this case, Gothic. Gabe’s work represents a very high level of skill combined with significant research and commitment applied to this very fine drawing.

Instead of just sitting in a classroom and looking at slides in the dark, the Los Medanos College "Introduction to the Visual Arts" (Art 5) Honors class visited the Lafayette Hillside Memorial as part of a lesson on iconography, monuments and political art.  They talked about individual pieces of the monument, the monument as a whole, its purpose, and what they saw and felt. They also got an unplanned surprise when one of the original founders of the memorial, Lynn MacMichael, happened by. She spoke about the problems with acceptance when it was first installed, and the continuing issues with vandalism. She also explained a few of the symbols we missed and even told a few funny stories. Being Honors students, they even  climbed up to the top of the hill for a better view. They were also thrilled to get a little extra credit, because that's just the way they are. Sounds good, doesn't it? Find out more about the Honors Program here .

Xavier Travis, working to match the type and image size on a print piece. It's all part of an exercise in his Adobe InDesign class (that's Art 50 for the numerically oriented.) When he's matched it perfectly he'll go on and design his own masterful piece using the same information, but making it 13.76 times more interesting.

Courtney Rodgers' artwork,  Shed Some Light , was a big winner in Spring 2013. She was awarded Best of Division in Advertising Art at the Los Medanos College Student Art Show and also won the Graphic Design Division and a scholarship from the Discover Art League. The artwork was created in Rebecca Talley's LMC ART 25 Advertising and Marketing class. Courtney's winning design focused on increasing public awareness for the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

It's that time of year again. LMC Photoshop students created mock up wine labels on bottles for real California wineries. Drink these in, and enjoy.

It's time for Bike to Work Day again. As I do every year, I ask my Graphic Design students to make posters. Here are a few favorites.

   As a continuation to her show in the LMC Art Gallery, artist Deepa Preeti Natarajan conducted a natural dye workshop in the nature preserve at Los Medanos College.