There are many talented minds within the Los Medanos faculty and to showcase their creativity, a faculty art show titled the Roll Call Exhibition is being held. Gallery Director Carol Ladewig put together many of the amazing works created by the LMC staff and wants to inspire the students with their works of art. The first showing was held on Sept. 15 and was even held online for those who couldn’t make it in-person.

It was a resounding success and many students came in to see their professor’s creativity put on display, like LMC student Dakota Rushing who came by as the show opened up its doors at 4:30 p.m.. Her initial reason for coming was for an extra credit assignment, but soon found herself staying the entire duration observing all the artworks. She came across the “Phoenix in the Box” by Justin Nogarr and considered it her favorite out of all the pieces.

“I thought that one was really cool,” said Rushing. “It was like a medium I haven’t really seen a lot or worked with before so I thought that was really interesting.”

There were many other impressive artworks that were put on display besides this one, such as paintings and sets of photographs. Many people who attended might not have noticed one art piece. Placed in the middle of a pillar and surrounded by other works was a piece by Jeremy Throne titled “Joy.”

“It has the honor of being the smallest work in this show,” said Ladewig.

There were many other standout art pieces available at the show too, such as “The Gollum Table” by Clint Sides which was an amazing wood carving from a tree that Sides plans to use as a table after the show and a beautiful set of photographs taken by John Schall. Among the other sculptures was a ceramic sculpture titled “Wolf Mask” which was a piece that showcased a realistic wolf head on the wall. It was a favorite for Iris Arianda Lopez-Montano who loves wolves, but one sculpture that made her skin crawl was the set of sculptures titled “spider caves” by Lucy Snow.

Snow had the inspiration to create this piece while observing the spiders around her. She wanted to give some context to the spiders so she created a cave setting and replicated the texture of cave walls by pressing the clay onto the ground to give it a more natural look.

“You could get the same texture using a rock and pressing it,” said Snow. “But humans can see repeating patterns so it was a unique solution.”

The sculptures were created in four different parts with three of them being mounted on the wall and one of the sculptures even featured a dangling spider on a web, which caught the eye of many attendees. Setting them up proved a challenge for Ladewig who didn’t want to damage the pieces and needed Snow to help set them up.

“I didn’t want to mess them up and didn’t quite get how they go up,” said Ladewig. “[Lucy Snow] came in and we talked and figured out where I wanted them to go and she did it.”

When the exhibition had a sizable amount of people, Ladewig brought all the attendees together and began the segment of the show where the artists would talk about their process when creating their art piece and take questions from the audience. It was a great way to hear the creative process behind these artworks and what sort of mindset the artists had when creating their piece.

If you missed this exhibition, worry not as Ladewig has other exhibitions planned out. Two shows are being planned for this semester, with one of them being a student art showcase. If this exhibition managed to give you that burst of inspiration you’ve been missing, consider submitting your art for the future student art show because LMC would love to see what you have to offer! Submissions for this student show will open later on in the fall semester with the student art show opening in time for the spring.