The Ceramics Guild held their annual sale over the weekend, raising money for art department clubs.

The sale was Friday and Saturday in the Art Center Courtyard with clubs like the Ceramics Guild, Animation Club, Illustration Club and Photography Club selling samples of their work.

‘All the presidents of the clubs got together to make this a department-wide sale,’ said Michelle Kim, the president of the Public Art Club and a ceramics major.

‘Everything here is student-made,’ said Ceramics Club President Arlene Monzon, also a ceramics major.

Each student was given a table of their own to display their works and the money raised by the art sale will be used to fund field trips, guest speakers and other events for the students in the art department.

Cory Bluemling, a ceramics graduate student, had recently sold a number of large pots to the school that will be displayed in the Art Center Courtyard and used as tree planters.

Items sold by the ceramic students included one-of-a-kind coffee mugs, planters, bowls and necklaces with circular ceramic pendants about the size of a half-dollar, all of which were hand made.

According to Manzon, the ceramic works start off as a wet piece of clay which is shaped by hand.

The piece is then allowed to dry and is placed in a kiln, or a large, purpose-made oven, where the dried piece of clay is fired for up to six hours.

After the initial firing the piece is painted, glazed and fired again, this time for about 10 hours, depending on the piece.

On Friday the clubs hosted a walk-through, displaying student artwork, according to Monzon who had some of her work displayed.

A total of 15 students displayed work for the walk-through in a total of 13 rooms.
‘It is a chance for the public to walk through the studios,’ said Monzon. ‘It was open to friends, family, fellow artists’hellip;anyone and everyone.’

‘There’s a lot of great work,’ said Hector Enriquez, the president of the Illustration Club. ‘ Different artists from different realms getting together.’

The Illustration Club sold prints and original works by its members, said Enriquez.
According to Enriquez, the inspiration for his work came from action movies from the 1980s and comic books.

The event ran from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Another walk-through of work done by Masters of Fine Arts students will be held on April 26, 2009 and the Associated Students is also working with Art Department clubs, as well as other clubs on campus, to organize a similar sale at the Farmer’s Market held at the Northridge Fashion Mall, according to Kim.

Kim said the Public Arts Club is also working to arrange a map of the public art on campus.

‘People always wonder what public art is,’ said Kim. ‘It can be anything from a statue in a museum to graffiti, anywhere the public can see it.’