Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Fullerton College Art Legends


Deborah Davidson, Jon Bush, Dave Maestrejuan, Scott Drake


"Fullerton College Art Gallery presents Art Legends 2014. The Art Department celebrates the Fullerton College Centennial by inviting back alumni and former faculty who have made an impact in the art world." That's what the announcement says. Lo and behold, I'm on the list and my work is on the wall with some real heavy hitters. Whatta treat! 

Back in the day, as a teenager, I went to LA Art Center and then took classes at UCI and then on to Fullerton College to use up the rest of my scholarship money. Scott Drake used to drive me to school because I was usually under the influence by class time. We took Don Treadway's life sculpture class at 9 a.m. (the first college class Don taught), he's in the Legend show too. Also took other classes and not sure how I got home. 

Jump ahead a few decades and I decided to go back to school for art classes. I looked around and found Fullerton College still had the best art program and took up residence there for several years, learning skills and earning accolades. As an aside, its there I met Deborah Davidson, the best art teacher I've ever encountered. She is a BIG reason people succeed at Fullerton and deserves the title of legend as one of the only faculty who is a working artist and as a former student. I am honored to be considered her peer in this show.

The opening party was terrific, everywhere you looked was a prominent figure in art. Nixon Borah, cousin Justin Sweet, Kate Johnson, Jon Gothold, its a long list. There was music and BBQ and of course the art exhibit in the gallery was beautifully done by Carol Henke.

While growing up in Brea I was surrounded by artists of all ilk. Superb musicians were all around us. Scott Gladden, Bill Jacobi, Broc Smith and I were all into drawing and painting. Scott Drake and Ken Ford were masters in ceramics. Jon Bush found success by going into glass. We had quite a little cult of creators and all shared in each others journey. Not everybody chose to go to school, but the ones who did were prominently recognized in this exhibit and I'm honored to be one of the crew.