Family and friends of UH art students gathered on campus last Friday before starting their weekend plans to view their paintings that have accumulated over this semester. | Catherine Lara/The Daily Cougar
Perched high in the top of the Fine Arts building, the UH Painting Department’s Open Studios and Graduation Party on Friday was a sight to behold.
Nearly 40 artists displayed a semester’s worth of hard work in the show.
Recent graduate and musical guest Jamie Woody’s soulful melodies set a perfect mood for the evening
All ages and backgrounds were represented, as friends and families came out to support their favorite artists.
It was interesting to see such a wide variety of styles and techniques expressed in the paintings.
Andria Nguyen’s incredibly smooth, religious and Gothic-inspired grotesques incorporated beads, crosses and other sculptural elements.
Stacy Smith’s bright, colorful figures and scenes resembled high-definition photographs, while Hillaree Hamblin made novel use of dyed cloth, sequins and twigs.
Artists Voltaire Paredes and David Anderson continued to cover their large canvases in paint throughout the show, much to the delight of passers-by.
Paredes even welcomed those who were interested to pick up a brush and join in.
“If there’s anything to save of the art world, we’ll save it,” he said.
Each studio space offered a completely different environment and provided insight into each artist’s vision.
Bec Cook’s impeccably clean forest creatures and tasty-looking desserts hung not 10 feet away from abstract and process-oriented artists who mixed, poured and smeared other materials with their paint, which resulted in very delicately layered organic shapes.
While some artists listed the titles and sale prices for each piece, others chose to let their work speak for itself.
Stacy Smith’s studio advertised a free charcoal drawing for the winner of a raffle.
Junior Maryam Sohail described her use of dark, sprawling environments interspersed with “Alice in Wonderland” characters as being inspired by surrealism and graphic art, but admitted she had not yet decided on a niche.
“I’d like to continue doing this,” Smith said.
“It was a great night for the arts, patrons, and university students alike; such a talented group of artists is hard to come by. We can expect big things from the 2012 graduating class in the months and years to come.”
Thank you for writing about us. It's so nice to see our names and descriptions of our work in print. I know that many of us plan to meet those big expectations and if you'll let us know who to contact, we'll keep you informed about what we are up to.