Instructors show art of all mediums

When we think artist, many things come to mind, but at Mt. Hood, teacher is quite common. Teachers in the MHCC art department are local artists – some of them have had work sold or hung in galleries in Oregon and other states. People such as Joe Davis, Nathan Orosco, and Mary Girsch are just a few of the artists on staff who teach their craft.

Joe Davis teaches ceramic courses at Mt. Hood. Earlier in his life, he had no plan to become a teacher and didn’t even know he liked ceramics. In a design class in college, a student would bring in a new mug or something they made every week or two. Davis thought it was interesting and decided, “ ‘I’m going to take a ceramic class at some point’ and the first time I touched the clay, I knew it was going to be my life’s direction,” he said. When asked what attracted him to this medium, he said, “I was drawn to ceramics, in particular, pottery, because I was really drawn to the idea that it was an art form that you can touch, pick up, feel, and use. I really like the idea that what I make can be held in people’s hands.” Davis dabbled in selling his art, but was more interested in creating it. “I’m a terrible businessman,” he said. He tried to make a living off of art a time or two, but it didn’t really work out, because he got more involved in the creating of the art instead of selling it. After teaching friends and a non-credit class, he discovered he really enjoyed teaching.

Orosco has a degree in tech sculpture, drawing, and design. He also owns a BA studio and has a masters in fine art studio sculpture and drawing. He said, “I have always been interested in wanting to be an artist. My abilities are pretty plastic (flexible, or elastic) and my thoughts are pretty plastic, so it was the only field that allowed me to be that diverse in what my abilities are.”

After high school, Orosco took more art classes to keep making work, got into the academic and arts communities, and realized that there was a natural progression to gallery work or teaching. He ended up in teaching art, because he liked talking about it and showing people how to do it. “Teaching keeps me physically into the making [of art] and I constantly learn,” he said. It’s an artist’s job to express plasticity with thoughts, ideas, laws, everything.”

Girsch teaches art foundations and digital art courses and has been an instructor at MHCC for 15 years. Before coming to MHCC, she taught art at two universities as a three-dimensional artist. She said, ”I was being hired to teach design courses and knowing how to use the computer was a required skill for applied arts. Spending so much time on the computer while learning and teaching it, it was natural to push things around to see what the digital tools can do in a fine art, self-expressive way.

“Teaching itself is a creative process; it’s challenging and satisfying. It’s turned out to be a good fit for me,” Girsch said.

These teachers, and many more, each have an exhibit displayed in MHCC’s Visual Art Gallery. The display includes Davis’s six wheel-made pieces, Orosco’s “Take it to the Bridge,” made of different ink-covered surfaces, and Girsch’s digital printed pieces “A quantum leap” and “Latin.”

The Visual Art Gallery is located in Building 19, in the art section of the campus.

Advocate Staff