CC Art Gallery News

• This fall’s featured Cuesta Fine Arts Gallery artist is also a Cuesta faculty member.

Douglas Highland, head instructor for photography and digital photography courses, has several photomurals on display through mid-November. Entitled Phantasmagoria, all of the works are albumin prints, a technique invented in 1850 and the most common kind of print for the next four decades. Made by coating paper with egg white and salt, then coating again with silver nitrate (in a gelatin base), the paper could then be placed in contact with a negative and exposed to the sun to produce a print. Highland’s smallest exhibited gelatin piece, entitled fern, is three feet by 12 feet.

Originally trained as a commercial photographer, Highland says that these large mural works “come from my own attachments to peoples and places existing within the contemporary world, as well as nostalgic attachments to the past. My concerns are for people’s disconnection within our everyday world where I believe present culture is built on the constant destruction of the past, and instant obsolescence of the present.” Highland’s works have also been seen in Lake Tahoe and Arizona, and prior to his present position, he taught at facilities including Lake Tahoe Community College, the University of Arizona, Allan Hancock College and Cal Poly.

Phantasmogoria runs through November 10. For gallery hours and other information, phone Gallery Assistant Pamela McKenna at 546-3202. For online information, log on to http://academic.cuesta.edu/finearts/gallery.htm.

• Beginning eight days after Douglas Highland’s exhibition ends, the Gallery will be hosting a sale of student, faculty and staff ceramic pottery and sculpture.

While a Cuesta holiday ceramic sales is nothing new for the Ceramic Club, Fine Arts/Ceramics department head Guyla Amyx says that having the event for the first time in the Fine Arts Gallery is a nicer venue than previous locations. About 25 students, faculty and staff will display their works, all of which will be for sale and just in time for the holidays. Prices will start at a few dollars each for small bowls and cups, and might reach up into thousands of dollars for one-of-a-kind sculptures. Items will be both functional and decorative, and the sale will also include the always-popular bargain table.

The sale commences on November 18 and will end December 1. (November 23, 24 and 25 are excluded.) For more information, call Guyla Amyx at 546-3100, ext. 2755.