LBCC’s Alumni Art Gallery had its closing event in the K building on Thursday Dec. 5, with many of the featured artists stopping by to see the exhibition one last time.
The exhibition hosted artwork made by LBCC alumni, including some who graduated over 25 years ago.
One such alum, Mariah Cool, became a professor of sculpture and 3D design at LBCC, and her piece “Not Enough” was featured at the gallery.
“Not Enough” is a 3D art piece that was featured in the rear of the gallery, a pile of crochet blankets positioned in front of a television screen displaying static, all hidden away in a room behind metal bars.
“I don’t like telling people what it is, it’s not supposed to be anything, I just love hearing everyone’s interpretations,” Cool said.
Cool shared some notable interpretations that she received, and shared her idea for what motivated them.
“During the election season someone said it’s someone watching election results, during Halloween someone said it was a monster, I think in a lot of ways it’s a reflection of where people are in their life,” Cool said.
The art gallery’s director Karla Aguiniga curated the pieces for the gallery, particularly choosing artists that went on to receive their bachelor’s degree, and that have gone on to become professionals.
Aguiniga also had her own interpretations to share with Cool about her piece.
“It’s inviting, if the gate wasn’t there, people would try to touch it. The gate makes it eerie, and unsure of if it’s even supposed to be there. With all those blankets, something that was made with love, that could have been made by somebody’s grandmother, and now it’s become a sort of pile of waste,” Aguiniga said.
Cool agreed with this sentiment of the piece having themes of consumerism and waste, sharing some of her inspiration.
“There were hundreds of thousands of hours put into the blankets, but they’re discarded,” Cool said.
Aguiniga mentioned three other former LBCC professors that were also featured in the gallery, those being Luis Moreno, Rachel Shimpock, and Christina Shurts.
Karina Colorado’s pieces “Weaves with Natural Fibers” (left) and “Ya Queremos Pastel” (right) sit on display at the LBCC alumni art exhibition. The exhibition concluded on Thursday Dec. 5, 2024. (Ryan Hixson)
Cool spent her first years in college at LBCC, before transferring to USC to receive her BA in visual anthropology, and then returning to LBCC to take art classes alongside receiving her masters in fine arts from UCI.
“Karla’s done a good job of creating a community hub, we have people coming in and just wanting to talk for the sake of it,” a student working at the gallery Lolita Mojica said.
Mojica also highlighted Aguiniga’s efforts to make the gallery more welcoming in contrast to previous years, such as making it free for all students.
“I love the energy here, it’s an exciting age of people to be around, and to help make their work,” Cool said.
Cool intends on making this piece part of a larger family of works, centering around the theming of the blankets and their overabundance being a visual representation of the wastefulness of consumerism.