The University Art Gallery at Sonoma State hosted the annual Juried Student Exhibition that will be open from March 30 through April 23, 2023. At this event two jurors Jeff Nathanson Executive Director and Curator of Art Museums of Sonoma County and Inez Storer, Artist get to select the pieces for the exhibition. At this exhibition, there are many types of artwork such as oil paintings, ceramics, printmaking, and drawings. Each piece of work displays a student’s unique individuality and creativity.

Fellow seawolf Owen Martinez-Alejandre made two ceramic pieces called the “Study of Two Animals.” The two animals were a crocodile and a wolf head. Each piece was made with a different type of kiln firings. Martinez-Alejandre said, “The wolf head was a Kutani and the crocodile was the raku firing.”Martinez -Alejandre then goes on to explain the process of each piece. The wolf head Martinez -Alejandre  said, “was particularly challenging, it took 4 weeks to get the overall head in and I had the initial challenge of getting the mouthpiece in.”

Martinez-Alejandre had to do the wolf head in stages, especially with the complex interior details of the mouth and tongue. The crocodile was made with a raku firing technique which intrigued Martinez-Alejandre because of the different colors from the glaze he used. Martinez-Alejandre said, “I mostly like to concentrate on my ceramic work with animals, so trying to flourish them out was a lot of fun.”

Jirah Littlejohn, second year, majoring in an art studio and minoring in museum and gallery methods piece was called “Enigmatic,” which means mysterious. Her piece was a digital print that she drew on paper and then uploaded to procreate on the Ipad. She then colored and shaded her piece.  Littlejohn said, “ I like the little details I put in like the piece sign in the hat, his grill, his nose ring, and the little detail on his nail polish, the hardest part was trying to figure out what the hair or the hat was gonna look like.”

Ash Gregorio, made a self-portrait where the assignment was to make yourself into another character or something that you are not used to dressing up as. Gregorio said, “I dressed up as a clown and painted my whole face and set up a studio.” With this portrait that has so much detail and had only three weeks to complete, finishing it on time  took her 10 hours a day. This was the first time one of her pieces was in a gallery. Gregorio is continuing her passion and making another self-portrait that she says “is turning out better.”

 The exhibition is now open on campus until April 23. For more information go to artgallery.sonoma.edu or follow them on Instagram @ssuartdepartment.