Tag Archives: visual arts

Caleb Pudewell, Graphic Design Major

If you love the posters pictured as much as we do, let us introduce you to the artist who designed them! Caleb is a senior graphic design student in PUC’s accredited department of visual arts, as well as a design intern in our Marketing & Communication office. His illustration work is inspired by his passion for nature and the outdoors and when he graduates this June, Caleb plans to pursue a career with an outdoor company or creative agency in the Pacific Northwest. With his portfolio of projects that also includes identity branding, publication, and clothing design, we are confident he’ll be another PUC success story!

To see more of Caleb’s work, visit behance.net/calebpudewell.

PUC’s Department of Visual Arts Shares the Wealth

Many classes in the department of visual arts require the use of specific, expensive equipment. While PUC is blessed to allow students access to the very best, virtual learning posed a bit of a problem. How would students complete their projects while so far away from the resources they’ve grown accustomed to using? Instructor of film & television production Tim de la Torre and assistant professor of photography Brian Kyle decided to carefully pack-up and ship super-8 film cameras to their students so they were able to complete their projects remotely. 

de la Torre has also personally sent students iMacs from the school’s computer labs, cameras, and filmmaking gear and knows his fellow professors have sent students from photography and printmaking classes packages of tools and equipment to complete their assignments. He says he knows at least one student went so far as to take an entire ceramics wheel home back in March! 

de la Torre speaks for everyone at PUC when he says everything is going to be better once all students are back on campus but for the time being, he and the rest of the department are committed to providing their students with the same level of care and attention they receive in the physical classroom. “We are making this online thing work!” says de la Torre. 

Learn more about the department of visual arts at puc.edu/academics. Our team of admissions counselors can answer any questions you have about these programs, or the other majors the college offers. Call (800) 862-7080, option 2, or email admissions@puc.eduto get connected with a counselor now and start learning about all the options available to you!

Academic Spotlight: Visual Arts

As one of our most interactive departments, visual arts is known for producing student work of the highest quality. This artistic and collaborative community strives to provide real-world experiences, preparing students for their future careers. Learn more about PUC’s department of visual arts at puc.edu/visual-arts and discover the creative pathways available to you in a career in the arts.

Programs offered:

  • A.S., B.A. in Art, Photography Emphasis
    • B.F.A. in Photography
  • A.S., B.A. in Design, Graphic Design Emphasis
    • B.F.A. in Graphic Design
  • A.S., B.A., B.F.A. in Film
  • B.A. in Art, Fine Art Emphasis
    • B.F.A. in Fine Art

A Student’s Perspective

“I picked visual arts because it is something I have been passionate about since seventh grade. Originally, I thought photography was simply a hobby, but as time progressed, I realized it is something I want to gain a deeper education in. One thing I really appreciate about the department of visual arts at PUC is its flexibility. Everyone is open to new ideas and the overall mindset of the department fosters individual creativity. Someday, I definitely want to start a business and have my own studio. I think it is something I will be able to do after graduating from PUC.” — Keren Castro, freshman, photography

Fast Facts

  1. Career Preparation. Visual arts programs provide an intensive approach to studying and creating art in multiple mediums and prepares students for success. Students have interned at Obey, Disney, Airbnb, Buzzfeed, the Napa Valley Film Festival, and Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope.
  2. Artistic Excursions. The department of visual arts takes students on quarterly trips to museums in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as tours of companies like Apple, YouTube, and Pinterest; field trips to historic design spots such as the Eames Ranch and M&H Type; and longer trips to events such as the Sundance Film Festival.
  3. On-Campus Culture. The Rasmussen Art Gallery at PUC presents a variety of art exhibitions each year, where students, faculty, and guest artists showcase their latest work. Additionally, film students premiere their projects at the historic Cameo Cinema in St. Helena every year at the annual Diogenes Film Festival.
  4. Accomplished Graduates. Recent grads have gone on to work with many prestigious companies, such as Pixar, DreamWorks Animation, Legendary Films, Facebook, Apple, Netflix, Lucasfilm, LinkedIn, RipCurl, Williams Sonoma, and Martha Stewart Living. There are also many alumni working for large ministries like 3ABN, Amazing Facts, and Maranatha Volunteers International.

What You Can Do With This Major

You’re only limited by your imagination for what you can do with a visual arts degree! Here are just a few ideas to help get you thinking about your options.

  • Art professor
  • Artist
  • Film editor
  • Filmmaker
  • Graphic designer
  • Illustrator
  • Photographer
  • Photojournalist
  • UX/UI designer

Our team of admissions counselors can answer any questions you have about the department of visual arts or any of PUC’s other programs. Call (800) 862-7080, option 2 or email admissions@puc.edu to get connected with a counselor now and start learning about all the options available to you!

Student Art Show Opens Thursday

By Becky St. Clair

On Thursday, April 19, the department of visual arts will host an opening reception for the 2018 student art show in the Rasmussen Art Gallery, right here on campus. The reception begins at 7 p.m. and the show will run until May 9. The event is free and open to the public.

We spoke with a few of the students exhibiting their art to learn more about them and their work. Be sure to come check out their various media during the show.

Celeste Wong, senior fine art major
Emphasis: Ceramics
Home: Hercules, California
Media on Display: Ceramics, oil painting, monotype, stone/clay sculpture

Celeste Wong, senior, creates using her favorite medium, clay.

Why did you select these particular pieces for the show?
I made a collaborative ceramic series outside of class with a friend. We spent nearly 80 hours on this piece. I decided to show my oil painting I made in class because I have never worked with that medium before and I feel proud of how I improved throughout the quarter. As a whole, the works that I put in the show, I feel, are the best that I have created in the past year.

What do you enjoy most about ceramics?
The process. I enjoy it far more than any other medium I have tried. Clay is a very versatile medium that can be manipulated in many ways. There are many components to the process between production and the end result I am constantly learning. I also like the feeling of putting my entire body to work, rather than sitting at a desk drawing, or standing in one place while painting. Making ceramics on the potter’s wheel involves the motion and strength of your entire body. It makes me feel alive and I have truly put my whole effort in the piece I create.

Why did you choose to become a fine arts major?
In high school, I always created small projects and kept up hobbies that involved creating. My only creative outlet during my freshman year here was drawing and copying diagrams from my biology textbook, which my friends said was a waste of time. But I had an itch to create rather than spend my time memorizing facts. During spring quarter, I decided to take a ceramics class because I wanted to do something fun for myself and working on the potter’s wheel was always on my bucket list. By the end of the year, I realized I wasn’t a scientist, I was an artist.

What has surprised you about the fine arts program?
I am surprised at how my department has become like a family to me. Students and professors alike have supported me and my work throughout these years even when I wasn’t an art major to begin with.

Samuel Delaware, junior fine art major
Emphasis: Photography
Home: Durham, Maine
Media on Display: Triptych & case-bound maquette

Tell us about the pieces you have in the show.
The triptych is from an ongoing series I’ve created, entitled “Horizon.” It’s something I’ve been working on for the past year, along with the first edition maquette.

Sam Delaware, junior, proofs some of his art for printing.

What do you enjoy most about photography?
In his book, “Art Can Help,” photographer Robert Adams suggests, “The job of the photographer, in my view, is not to catalogue indisputable fact, but to try to be coherent about intuition and hope.” Similarly, I think what excites me most is trying to find a sense of coherence in my own work concerning whatever subject matter I’ve delved into. It’s a continuous process of attempting to capture a sense of truth and reality best I can with only two dimensions, which is deceptively difficult.

What has surprised you about the program?
The dedication of the faculty who are drastically underpaid for the amount of passion and commitment they pour into their teaching and mentorship.

Drew Macomber, senior fine art major
Emphasis: Painting
Home: Ohio, California
Media on Display: Monotypes, paintings

Tell us about the pieces you’ve selected for the show.
I have some monotypes, which are a form of printmaking, in the show, but mainly paintings. Most of them are expressive. I always say I paint emotions rather than realistic subject matter. I have two self-portraits in as well, and two collaborative works on which I worked with Chanel Lee, another PUC artist in the show. Those turned out pretty cool. I selected work I thought represented me as an artist this year. I tend to not want to follow rules as much, and that is apparent in some of the works.

What do you like most about painting?
I worked in watercolor, oil, and acrylic, and then some with watercolor, acrylic, and charcoal. I love being able to see bright and bold color instantly. Usually my painting is reacting to how I am feeling, kind of turning off the mind and just letting it go. I relate most with watercolor because of the fluidity of the medium. In fact, I did my thesis in watercolor, although I do not have any straight watercolors in the show.

Why did you choose this major?
Being a fine art major just clicked for me. School has never been something that I find great success at; it has always felt like a struggle. When I took a drawing class I realized, “This is what I have to do.” My mom is an artist, so I’ve grown up my whole life immersed in creating art. I never thought of it as something that I would pursue in school, but when I opened up to that idea, it made perfect sense.

What has surprised you about the program?
How challenging it is. That is partly because I believe you get out what you put in, and I tend to put lots of myself into all my art. Because of that, it can quite emotionally draining at times, but also extremely rewarding.

Laurel Williams, senior fine art major
Emphasis: Painting & Illustration
Home: Disneyland (just kidding; I’m from Corona and Riverside, California, so it’s almost the same thing)
Media on Display: Glass, watercolor, oil, acrylic

Why did you choose the pieces you did for the show?
Out of all my projects this year they have turned out closest to how I planned them to be. My opaque paintings and watercolors I knew I would submit to the show some time ago, but the glass piece was a surprise to me. Unfortunately, most of my glass light fixtures still have some finishing touches they need, but my little yellow embossed pineapple slab came out of the kiln right around the time of submission for the show, so I figured, why not?

Work by Laurel Williams, senior, some of which will be displayed in the student art show opening Thursday at 7 p.m.

What do you like the most about your chosen media?
I like doing glass pieces because I get to create a new object that exists in three-dimensional space. Using the power tools in the department studio is also pretty fun. Generally, I’m more interested in painting, though, and I really enjoy oil and watercolor because they are opposites of one another. In oil painting, you paint from dark to light and in watercolor it’s light to dark. It’s very challenging and I like things to be difficult. I also like taking things that are 3D and flattening them out on a canvas with the illusion of perspective or light and shadow. Paintings are also usually more effective for me at communicating strong emotions or thoughts/ideas. Typically, my three-dimensional works are only either whimsical or decorative.

Why did you choose this major?
I actually didn’t. My dad decided that for me, and thank goodness he did! I totally thought I was going to do something “practical” like business and agriculture or some sort of science degree so that I could become an astrophysicist. During the summer between high school and college my dad convinced me to switch to fine art and so here I am. Not many people’s’ parents encourage them to do art so I’m really lucky that mine do.

What’s something that surprised you about the fine arts program?
First, its well-roundedness. The previous schools I attended didn’t have as many sculpture and 3D courses to complement the 2D ones, so I really appreciate that about this department. Second, how much I love my classmates and professors. I thought I’d like them before coming here, of course, but we get along so well! Everyone is so supportive of each other’s work and we collaborate quite a bit. Critiques are actually the most fun because I think my classmates give great advice and we really want to see each other succeed. No one is super competitive—that’s not always something I’ve experienced before in artistic communities and it’s really refreshing.

Join the student artists and their professors for an opening reception on Thursday, April 19, at 7 p.m. in the Rasmussen Art Gallery. The show will run until May 9. The gallery is open 1-5 p.m. Thursday-Sunday.

Five Academic Departments at PUC You Should Know

There are over 70 different majors at PUC, which offers students plenty of options to choose from. Some of our more popular and unique departments include nursing & health sciences, biology, visual arts, aviation and education, which is a nice mix making PUC a true liberal arts college. Read on for a few fast facts about these departments!

Nursing & Health Sciences

The department of nursing and health sciences is home to the emergency services program, as well as our AS and BSN nursing degrees, which are some of the most popular at PUC.

  • We talked with PUC’s pre-nursing advisor to cover some frequently asked questions about the program. Curious if a BSN is necessary in today’s workforce? Give this blog post a read.
  • PUC offers a two year degree in health sciences for students planning on continuing on to Loma Linda University for programs such as pre-clinical laboratory science, pre-dental hygiene, pre-radiation science, and several others.

Biology

Interested in gaining some real world research experience? Look no further than the department of biology, where students conduct experiments for research projects and internships on an almost daily basis. Browse through these blog posts about student research opportunities at PUC.

  • PUC biology students have uniquely high acceptance rates to top-notch medical and dental schools like Loma Linda University.
  • There’s more than one way and one place to learn. The department teaches classes on the Mendocino Coast at the college’s Albion Retreat & Learning Center, and students have traveled as far away as Brazil for tropical biology courses.

Visual Arts

For a behind the scenes look at one of PUC’s most exciting departments, check out the department of visual arts’ Instagram.

  • PUC film students have completed internships at DreamWorks Animation, Sofia and Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope film studio, Pixar and HBO.
  • With San Francisco just an hour a 20 minutes away, visual arts students often visit museums in the city, including the SF Museum of Modern Art, the de Young Museum, & the Palace of Legion of Honor.

Aviation

The sky’s the limit in PUC’s department of aviation!

  • PUC is one of only two liberal arts colleges in California to offer a degree in aviation.
  • There are many different career paths aviation students can pursue, including aerial photography, airline pilot, air traffic controller, fire fighting, and more. Read one PUC graduate’s story of how an aviation degree took him to new heights in this blog post.

Education

PUC’s $3,000 renewable Adventist Mission Scholarship is available to students actively pursuing a teaching credential for elementary or secondary education.

  • The department of education assists graduates with job placement through events like the Education Days banquet and interviews, where prospective employers from the local conference and throughout the Pacific Union meet with students.
  • Learn how you can tailor an education degree to fit your future career aspirations by reading about this recent graduate’s experience in this blog post.

For more information about all of PUC’s degree programs and how they can help you reach your educational and professional goals, we invite you to talk with an enrollment counselor in the enrollment services office. Email enroll@puc.edu or call (800) 862-7080, option 2 today.