Painting
Junior Megan Reed poses next to her painting featured in SKIN at the LA Municipal Art Gallery.
Jose Zuniga ('15) deconstructs culture.
Natalie Rafisiman ('15) incorporates tropes from the Middle East.
Will Bengston ('15)
Karissa Taylor ('17) poses in front of her soot drawings during the installation for a class exhibition at Project Space 2920.
Karissa Taylor ('17) makes a soot drawing on the Painting Studio patio.
The Painting Studio patio is a space where students can work with materials that require ventilation or experiment making murals.
The Perez Bros ('16) collaborated to make these striking self-portraits.
Another self-portrait by Veronica Marshall ('15), who has depicted herself as a doll.
Glenn Araya ('15) references the imagery and process of animation in this bright piece.
Mohsen Manzoor ('16) creates sherbert-colored fields using spray paint.
Justin Wilson ('15), a military veteran, abstracts the view as seen through a night vision scope.
Robert Moore ('15) channels his street artist cred to offer up this sweet suite of pink paintings.
Sheri Chillingworth ('15) reveals her mastery of materials.
Austin Matthew's ('15) intriguing collage-painting
Adam Papparotto ('15)
Darienn Hesse ('15) wows with this juicy landscape.
Selena Spurgeon ('16) explores the ubiquitous Googie in shades of blue and pink.
Maia Lee ('15) depicts a car culture dystopia.
William Blyth's ('15) painting of trash found in the LA River shines a light on local ecology.
A Neo-Surreal still life
Mobility student Dylan Townley-Smith makes the mundane iconic.
Works in progress in the Painting Studio.
As one of three areas of emphasis in Fine Arts, Painting students learn the basic principles, techniques, and concepts of painting and drawing while developing their talent. Students learn to translate their ideas, passions, and interests into compelling works of art.
Students are exposed to the ideas and methods that make up the long, rich history of painting. Classes include abstract and representational approaches to the medium and how to use them to make successful paintings. Students in the Painting concentration work on surfaces ranging from paper, canvas, panels, and walls, among many other possibilities. They experiment using a wide variety of materials (oil, acrylic, watercolor, spray paint, and others) as part of their journey to become professional artists with their own unique direction.
Painting students work in two studio environments: the Galef Center Painting Studio, which has 24/7 access, a storage facility, an outdoor work area, and an adjoining clean space where students present work for critique; and the Senior Studios, which offer each student a private space to work in for the entirety of their senior year.
Drawing Emphasis
Geovanna Gonzalez models a drawn wardrobe.
Michelle Lange ('14)
Robert Moore ('15) draws with plastic.
A neon drawing by Kour Pour ('10)
Jeanny Sandoval ('10) creates a meditative scroll.
Flora Kao's ('08) intense pen drawing
An unusual figure study
A Post-modern odalisque
Arien Valizadeh ('10) channels a Pop sensibility.
The Drawing Emphasis is created by a structured series of courses in Fine Arts as well as available courses in other programs at the college. Students explore how mark-making can be a powerful tool for communicating ideas. Material choices range from the traditional (graphite, charcoal and ink) to the conceptual (mud, oil, thread, marker and more).
Photography
A student reveals process in this display of his photographs.
Alexia Bernal ('15) gives new meaning to the term diptych.
Natalie Rafisiman ('15) uses humor to compose this portrait.
Natalia Rinder ('14) created this moody portrait for an on-location fashion shoot using strobe lighting techniques for the Lighting Studio Photography class.
Ruby Escobar ('14) captures the complexity of adolescence in this portrait.
Victor Delgado-Lopez ('14) combines painting with photography to create abstractions.
Xochitl Castillo ('14) uses ink in the darkroom to alter her images.
Alise Mongeon ('14) studies reflections.
Division St. by Tyler Sypher's ('14)
Paul Ulukpo ('13) offers an alternative view of the landscape
Kevin Colin ('14) brings a film noir sensibility to his photo of this building at night.
Christian Alvarez ('14) explores the landscape at night in this triptych.
Nomi Kadetz ('13) uses the materiality of the medium to present a fractured landscape.
A student works with a model in the Lighting Studio.
A student works in the darkroom.
Focusing on a medium with a wide presence in popular culture, students in the Photography area of emphasis in Fine Arts gain technical and conceptual skills to analyze and make photographic works of art. They learn analog and digital approaches to the medium, digital, and analog 35mm-, medium-, and large-format cameras, and scanners. Printing in traditional black-and-white and digital forms is explored as well as mural prints, light-boxes and alternative processes, and a full set of skills in studio lighting and Photoshop.
The Senior Studios offer each student a private space to work for the entirety of their senior year in the Fine Arts program.
Editorial/Fashion Photography Emphasis
A model poses in front of a green screen in the Lighting Studio.
On-location shoot with model using strobe in ambient lighting by Natalia Rinder (’14)
A photo student adjusts a model's outfit before the shoot.
Making a splash in shades of green and pink
Climbing the walls makes a different kind of statement.
A study in pattern and portraiture
A taxidermy still life
Getting up close and personal with a sunflower
The Editorial/Fashion Photography Emphasis is created by a structured series of courses in Fine Arts where students learn how to create images for use in print and online publications. Working in the spacious Lighting Studio, which features a permanent green screen, and well-equipped Photography Lab, student photographers have access to state-of-the-art equipment and facilities. Students work with live models and props in the studio or travel to sites around Southern California to shoot on location.
Sculpture/ New Genres
As one of three areas of emphasis in Fine Arts, students working in Sculpture/New Genres learn to create three-dimensional and time-based works of art. This very broad area allows students to explore the traditional forms of sculpture as well as the contemporary genres of installation, performance, sound, video, film, and art and social practice. Skills as diverse as ceramics, woodworking, mold-making and casting, sewing, weaving, welding, dance, and a wide range of digital media production are covered as tools for creating exciting new forms of art making.
The Senior Studios offer each student a private space to work in for the entirety of their senior year in the Fine Arts Program.
Contemporary Clay Emphasis
Grace Lee ('14) reveals a softer side of rebar.
Jenna Tashjian Hanson ('14) displays a pile of juicy multiples.
Marquita Flowers ('14) offers a flesh-colored arrangement.
A still life that has expanded the picture plane.
An arrangement and a conversation.
Grace Lee ('14)
Corinne Bernard ('15)
Caroline Daniel's ('13) cosmonaut seems poised for action.
Glenn Anaya's ('15) vivid bust channels "A Clockwork Orange".
So Jun Tak's ('15) reclining nude creates a dreamy vibe.
Marquita Flowers ('14) deconstructs the feminine.
Hallie Breene's ('13) "Piss Flutes" challenge gender norms.
R. Clayton Burney ('13) provokes the viewer to re-examine male sexuality.
A fluorescent pink pig stands at the ready.
Esmeralda Gonzales' ('14) fantastical canine
Lucianna Pinchiero ('13) creates hybrids from cartoon characters.
Vessels that sparkle
Grace Lee ('13) creates a study of simplicity.
A damaged life examined.
The Contemporary Clay Emphasis is created by a structured series of courses in Fine Arts where students explore both traditional and new approaches to working with the medium. Students have access to throwing wheels and kilns in the Ceramics Studio. They may also work on large-scale projects in the Sculpture Studio. Student artists are creating a new legacy of excellence with clay at Otis College in the 21st Century.
Film/Video Emphasis
Soo Y. Lim ('11) stands in front of a moving composition.
Logan King ('14) takes on the history of the US Mint.
Aida Lugo ('13) explores magic and history.
Blair Dalby ('13) enacts a study in obsession.
Jillian Frederick ('14) reveals her outer self.
In The Language Project, Luciana Pinchiero ('13) confronts failed conversations.
Eugenia Barbuc ('12) imagines an extraterrestrial landscape for a Romani protagonist.
Sebastian Tovar's ('14) Calendar explores how we experience time.
Francisco Almendarez ('14) documents his family's struggles.
Kat Hooper ('14) creates a stop-motion Post-Modern fairytale.
The Film/Video Emphasis is created by a structured series of courses in Fine Arts as well as available courses in other programs at the college. Students explore the technical and aesthetic aspects of film and video as art forms.