Current Exhibition

ArtPaths: Portfolio 2012

May 20- June 24

In the wake of its annual Strait Art exhibition that showcases Juan de Fuca region artists, the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center follows with its youth version of North Olympic fare under the banner of ArtPaths: Portfolio 2012. The show opens May 20 with a reception for the artists from 2-4 pm and remains on view through June 24.

A well-established annual event in its 7th year, Portfolio presents opportunities for young local artists to step into the limelight. This year’s exhibition features two-dozen promising high school student artists, selected by PAFAC education director, Barbara Slavik, from nominations made by their teachers.

Slavik worked closely with the art instructors in the county’s three largest high schools — Port Angeles, Sequim, and Forks — to guide the student artists in developing their work to exhibition standards. At Port Angeles High School first-year art instructor Kathleen Knisely replaced the convalescing Jenny Steelquist as mentor and guide into the mysteries of art. Veteran mainstays, Martha Rudersdorf and Jake Reichner at Sequim High School, continued to sharpen their AP and ceramics programs; and Wendy Bennett, at Forks High School, proved once again that there is culture beyond “Twilight.”

“Portfolio is not meant to be a competition, but a vehicle for expression and communication,” said PAFAC director Jake Seniuk. “The aim of the show always is to instill a sense of professionalism in ambitious students and to stimulate the production of a coherent portfolio that will demonstrate their talents, and hopefully launch them along future art paths.”

In weekly sessions, from February up to the show’s opening, Slavik mentored and critiqued students in collaboration with their teachers, helping the young artists refine their work and prepare it for an effective display.

“My biggest goal is always to help them try to find a voice of their own,” said Slavik. “I think that is the great challenge and reward of art, and in a larger sense is intrinsic to their development as aware human beings.”

Slavik guides the young artists to clarify their intentions of what they find important to communicate, and then works with them and their teachers to further develop the students’ design skills and achieve enough command over their materials to enable them to realize their intent.

At the May 20 opening each participating artist will be presented with $50 gift certificate for art supplies, supported by long-time ArtPaths underwriter The Hastings Trust of San Diego. Olympic Stationers also contributes portfolio cases and drawing kits to each and Karon’s Frame Center contributes labor in matting and glazing a dozen and a half works on paper.

The exhibition is comprised of paintings, drawings, ceramics and mixed media works that express a host of ideas and emotions and includes veterans of past Portfolio exhibitions and newcomers, underclassmen as well as seniors.

“The level of skill is impressive and many of the pieces show a visual sophistication that is remarkable for high school artists,” observed PAFAC director Jake Seniuk. “That is perhaps an outcome of the flood of imagery that we’re inundated with in our media-saturated cultural landscape. The influence of photography and computer graphics is visible in many of the 2-dimensional pieces, although the imagery has been adapted into manual painting and drawing. The products of the Sequim ceramics program are highly sculptural forms rather than functional vessels, and often imaginatively painted rather than glazed, reflecting current directions by progressive professional ceramic artists.”

The exhibition includes three to four pieces by the following artists: Port Angeles High School — Chauncelamay Bailey, Aubrianna Howell, Nora Krebs, Megan Perrizo, Britney Robinson and Bryttani Vaughan; Sequim High School — Jesh Anthony, Austin Becker, Blake Bryant, Patrick Carpenter, Jaiden Dökken, Gabriella Halady, Victoria La Croix, Julianne Miller, Andrea Morris, Sarah Necco, Jackie Sanschagrin, Sarah Spray, Lorah Steichen and Grace Trautman; and Forks High School — Eddy Bartley, Alyssa Miles and Julius Tuvenvall.