Have you ever wanted to add some flair to campus? Los Medanos College students who feel that way should come on down to the College Complex and pay a visit to the doodle board. Located on the third floor in between the Sculpture and PTEC classrooms, the doodle board allows students to add their own touch to the concrete building.
It’s a great way to create a sense of community, with students more than happy to oblige and create their own space filled with all sorts of drawings. Professor Eric Sanchez got the idea after noticing that the wall space between the two classrooms wasn’t being used.
“We painted it, put up basically a white board equivalent and just allowed a space where students can just do doodles,” said Sanchez. “We are the art department so the concept was to have a free sketch board that is a little less formal and a little more free.”
Within just a few weeks of the Spring semester, the doodle board has already seen lots of contributions to it. References to pop culture and memes are sprawled out to every corner and dialogues between passing students are shared on the wall. Some students have even left their social media profiles for other students to follow.
One such LMC student is Kenzie Leese, who came across the doodle board between classes.
“I came across it on my first day of starting a college class a couple years back now,” said Leese. “My class was in the Graphics Lab, and I decided to walk around near there and saw it.”
Leese is an artist who creates original art of her characters and does online commissions for people in her spare time. She added her own drawings to the board and liked seeing other students’ work. The doodle board not only allowed her to express her creativity, but even make some new friends.
“I’ve actually met a couple people from their art, because they draw something I know like a video-game character and then leave their Instagram tag and we became friends,” said Leese.
LMC student Samuel Darby has also come across the doodle board and sees a positive benefit to having one on campus. Darby, who attends a class in the PTEC classroom adjacent to the board, loves viewing the board from his classroom window and seeing students add quick details to it. Although he has never added to the board and prefers to draw at home, he loves seeing other students leave their own work.
“It can have some people relieve some stress by doing some doodling on it between classes and stuff,” said Darby. “It’s nice to see it.”
The doodle board is currently filled with amazing art but it won’t be permanent. Sanchez said it is periodically erased so the board is accessible to all creative students to express their styles over time.
“There was one student that proposed to do a larger drawing and I said sure and set it up for just one month,” said Sanchez. “Having things less permanent is sort of the intent with this board because we have a lot of creative people and a lot of expressive people.”
If you’re tired of staring at gray concrete walls, come visit the doodle board and see just how creative your college community can be.
