At the end of every semester, the Artist Society holds an event depending on what ideas sprout out with the semester’s group.
In class, there tends to be a strict environment and students have to be serious. “Even though I play music and I try to do a lot of social interaction, this (art show) is an opportunity to be who you are,” Hagop Najarian, advisor of the Artist Society and arts, design and photography chair, said.
“Years ago, when I started working here, we use to have a battle of the bands and we would rent the student stage.”
The Artist Society held its end of semester art show in Fine Arts room 30, on Dec. 5 from 6 to10 p.m.
To enter and showcase your work the only prerequisite was the foreknowledge of the event and connection to the Artist Society plus to be enrolled in the school.
At the event there was music playing, finger foods and flowing conversation.
Moreover at 8:30 p.m., the Wandering Gypsies and Mano Sucia bands out of East Los Angeles came and shook the room with live music.
What was flowing conversation now became chill moods, grooves and articulate dance moves.
One of the participants, Christina Martinez majoring in drawing and painting and also a member of the Artist Society personally showed off some of her work.
“Art runs in my family,” says Martinez, “my grandfather was a landscape artist” and ever since I took (professor) Najarian’s class I fell in love with (it) even more.
“Professor Najarian really helps bring out more in me. Especially with color and he taught me how to mix.”
Vice president of the Artist Society, Galileo Gonzalez, an art history major has been drawing since the 7th grade.
When he enrolled into college he sought to be an animation major then changed to an art history major because time told him that fine arts is what really resonated with him most.
“All i want to do is talk about art history,” Gonzalez said. “That is my interest because it is such an easy way to legitimize something that people may think is nonsense.”
Gonzalez spoke about how often times art historians use fancy vocabulary that sounds like “mumbo jumbo” and he wants to talk about art in a way people can understand.
Being at Cerritos College for five years he will finally be transferring to Cal State Long Beach where he will find new opportunities to grow as an artist.
Ashaka Mathews, a photography major and another member of the Artist Society spoke on her first show. “When the event slipped up on me I pulled up one of my older photographs which I used in my first student show at Cerritos College from five years ago.”
Mathews was passing through a life guard tower near downtown Long Beach.
He had to come back the next day because the lighting wasn’t right. Mathews actually claims, “Lighting is arguably the most important part of photography.”
After musing how he wanted his shot with different emotion, he came back to encompass the aesthetic quality in which Long Beach possessed.
These kind of events build a community, “That’s really all we have.” Finished Najarian.
