By: Katie Lulla
Costa art students gathered together to show off and sell their intriguing artwork on Friday, October 25. The art used a variety of mediums, but many artists used brighter and more unusual colors that attracted the attendees’ attention and made the event fun and informal.
Art Night never sets a theme to make the event be as inclusive as possible. This lets a large range of mediums and styles be displayed. Two-dimensional pieces were the most common, but each artist took a different angle in their work.
Mira Costa’s third annual Art Night was created to be a miniature Hometown Fair that would let the community buy and view the work done by art students in the previous year. There were 25 artists this year and 15 volunteers for the crafts and snack tables. During the event, the art students presented their work to the community and visitors could browse art pieces and make their own art at the crafts tables.
While Art Night is centered around the students’ work, the event added more crafts for attendees, including paint pouring and having their caricatures drawn. Other activities, such as chalk art and pumpkin painting allowed many attendees to enjoy and feel more involved in the event.
The student’s art pieces were all highly detailed and carefully made. They used a multitude of mediums such as ink, paint, photography, clay, watercolor, 3-D. This allowed the attendees to find the styles that they liked and explore new types of artwork. The works showed many contrasts between the art done at Mira Costa: realistic and abstract, humans and animals, 2-D and 3-D, cheerful and solemn. This kept the event interesting and appealed to all types of attendees.
The diversity of artwork extended to the presentations of the pieces, from professional setups, such as frames or prints to hand-done to one of a kind pieces on canvas or paper. The frames suited the more polished photographs, while the canvases flattered the abstract art styles by creating a dreamlike background.
Similar mediums were kept together, but unique artworks, like buttons, tote bags, and stickers, were scattered around the circle. This enabled attendees to focus on their favored art styles, while still being able to view other styles close by.
Sofia Prenter’s art represented many of the works being sold. Within her collection, she had a mix of mediums and styles creating colorful and intriguing art. Her abstract pieces alternated between ink and paint and centered on women and butterflies. She only sold her original works, so each piece was unique.
In contrast, Jonathan Ro’s photographs were one of the rare polished and professional artworks. He had a few city views photos, but most photos were of the Manhattan Beach pier. However, he took an interesting angle by reflecting the pier in a clear marble stuck in the sand. Ro’s work, along with the other two photography tables stood out among the paint and ink works because of his unique angles on the art piece.
The artworks at Art Night show off the works of Mira Costa’s art students by attracting the attention of the community in a casual and accessible setting. The pieces there exhibit the students’ creativity through a range of mediums, presentations, and themes.
Mira Costa’s Art Night is in October every year in front of room 109 before the Homecoming game. This year there is another opportunity to view the students’ works at Hermosa’s Resin Gallery on Friday, May 1.
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