Talent on display in the Visual Arts Gallery

With so many styles and mediums of art being shown at MHCC, walking into the Visual Arts Gallery on campus is like looking through a kaleidoscope. The Gallery is holding the college’s annual regional high school art exhibit. High schools from all over have submitted work by different students in grades 9-12.

Art in the exhibit ranges from Sharpies, metal, pottery, oils, pencils, watercolor, acrylic, and sculpture, to T-shirt printing.

A stunning graphite piece by Portland Academy Adventist artist Emily Nagele called “Above the Tree Line” shows a view of the Three Sisters and Broken Top mountains of central Oregon. Artist Aubrey Nelson from Sam Barlow High School features a cat on a stack of books in a Sharpie piece. Nelson also has a piece done on scratchboard, titled “Winter Roses,” that shows a bouquet of roses tied in ribbon, where shading is used in the piece to emphasize depth.

A profile of a skull titled “Collection” is found among many watercolor paintings; artist Kaylan Broadfoot-Baker, from Portland Adventist Academy uses both watercolor and pen in her piece to color, shade, and define three different angles of a human skull.

One colored-pencil piece includes a side view of a fairy tale villain, titled “Maleficent,” a piece done by Autumn Beckwith, from Reynolds High School.

Another work in the Gallery includes a design of two tigers burnt into wood side by side with one being an inverted image of the other; the piece is titled “Notan Savanna,” by Gresham High School student Ethan Forsman. A second graphic design piece by Forsman is a box made of paper with the words “cadet,” “protect,” and “ethics,” and other controversial law-enforcement words and terms burnt out of it.

From David Douglas High there are three metal pieces done by Carolina Martinez-Vargas, Brandon Phu, and Her Xiong using copper, brass, and nickel. The metal art includes a mermaid, an octopus, and an anime character, respectively.

Mt. Hood’s regional High School Art Exhibit will run this month, through April 27. The Gallery is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.

Advocate Staff