Jean Samson was brushing her teeth when the inspiration for her painting “Moment in Time” struck. When she glanced at a frog-shaped toothpaste squeezer near the sink, a wave of nostalgia overcame her. “I realized how much I would miss these small, messy moments from my children’s early years.”
Related Articles
Tech Challenge continues to inspire students — and this grown-up
Bay Area filmmaker highlights groundbreaking painter de Lempicka
Goodwill of Silicon Valley opening its first outlet store in San Jose
Get lost in a world of floating art at San Francisco’s Balloon Museum
Massive new SF exhibit explores Ruth Asawa’s ‘ordinary’ brilliance
Samson’s painting is among the more than 160 works by 70 artists in the student art show at De Anza College’s Euphrat Museum of Art. Student artists used a variety of media to express moments in life when people stop to take stock.
Victoria Almeida describes her large-scale ceramic relief as a portrait of the human experience, focusing on the extreme feelings and emotions we experience in life. “It shows the duality of hope and sorrow in a breath,” she says.
Inspiration for Linda Baker’s sculptures grew from a deep sense of uncertainty and imbalance she felt while seeking a sense of grounding, beauty and stillness as counterbalance. Each of her pieces combine natural materials and air. “They move gently with the world around them, holding space for stillness and change,” Baker says.
The day after Youssef Hassanein turned 18, he began to worry that time could run out before his aspirations were achieved. That compelled him to express the shadow side and move toward mindfulness. “My image reflects my fervent dream to touch time and be able to manage its shimmering glow,” Hassanein says.
“The Oracle,” a sculpture by Martin Krikorian, compares the journey to get advice from the ancient oracles at the Apollo Temple at Delphi to the poor control we have over the sources of information in our lives now. In it, tiny figures climb a papier mâché mountain to reach altar-like stations with giant corporate logos. Above, an iPhone slideshow plays globally sourced images of beauty and sorrow.
Sandy Rojas’s painting of a large pair of rose-colored glasses is a commentary on failing to see reality. “This feels especially true today,” Rojas says, “sas social media has given us a new lens—one that distorts our perception and paints a romanticized version of our daily lives.”
Asian American civil rights leader Yuri Kochiyama is honored in Lori Malahy’s ceramic sculpture. The relief mouths symbolize voices trying to be heard in today’s political landscape. She included a selection of words banned on government sites. “They were painted on the piece knowing that the glaze would blend with the one below, potentially blurring it from existence,” Malahy says.
Anna Graber Naidich’s abstract painting “Visions of War” evokes a sense of the fear, the hiding, the lives interrupted in war. “It’s about what it feels like to live in the middle of something that changes you forever,” Naidich says.
“Ukrainian Weekend,” a small sculpture by Tetiana Obrizan, features a floating flamingo water toy pierced by a missile. “It represents the current reality for Ukrainians, their families, and children,” Obrizan says. “They are forced to carry on with daily life at home under constant threat, simply for existing.”
Closer to home, leaves from across the De Anza College campus became large-scale images in Brandon Aitken’s photoprint installation. Experimenting with different lighting setups, he discovered that backlighting the delicate and varied leaves made them look like x-rays.
Daniel De Zordo looks for synchronicity and connections between different images and places them together in his photographic compositions drawn from nature and the urban environment. “The Flash on Lombard” takes separate perspectives of the iconic San Francisco street and recombines them into an altered cityscape.
If you look very closely, you’ll see a faint reflection of an exit sign on the blue background of Lia Hang Tran’s digital image of serenely floating jellyfish confined in a tank. “When we go through hard times and are feeling trapped, take a deep breath and we will find the way out,” Tran says.
The De Anza Student Art Show runs May 13-June 5 at De Anza College’s Euphrat Museum of Art, 21250 Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino. A reception and awards ceremony is set for Wednesday, May 21, 4-5:30 p.m. Museum hours are Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. For more information, visit deanza.edu/Euphrat or call 408-864-5464.
Diana Argabrite is the director of arts and schools at Euphrat Museum of Art.