Fourteen La Sierra art alums showcase work at Brandstater Gallery

The Alumni Exhibit opened Feb. 19 and runs through March 14. A reception was held Feb. 24 at the gallery.

The exhibit features a variety of media ranging from illustrations and photography, to video, graphic design, mixed media, and textiles. The artworks were created by former students of the Art+Design Department who attended La Sierra at varying points over the past 41 years. 

The show was designed to spotlight alums who have continued to engage in an ongoing creative practice following their graduation from La Sierra. Art department faculty who are also alums are not included in the show as faculty members have their own exhibitions at the gallery.

“As gallery director I hope this show will inspire our current students to see the breadth of creative activities available to them when they transition from life at La Sierra into the world of infinite possibilities,” said gallery director and assistant art professor Tim Musso.“It is equally important for our department to reconnect with alumni from our program and to give these individuals the opportunity to connect and interact with our current students. These alumni represent a rich resource and network for all students at La Sierra.”

Exhibiting artists are Nic Sanchez, Rachel Cho, Amy Cronk, Daniel Aldana, Elyse Whittier Paek, Brandon Grainger, Joemm Blanche, Valdenis Iancu, Kiyomi Fukui Nannery, Ricky Raboteau, Lauren Prado, Jeff Francis, Nora Ayala, and Katie Nahab. 

The artists hail from locations around California and other parts of the United States including Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Francisco, Seattle, and Brooklyn, New York. Their art work has appeared in galleries, children’s books, magazines, calendars, music videos, on signage and products such as snowboards, on websites, in marketing campaigns, digital apps, and as branded merchandise. Some have done creative work for feature films, television series and commercials, and some pursue freelance art enterprises and work as art educators.

In a questionnaire for the exhibit, the artists gave insights into their experiences at La Sierra University, their work as artists, and the future of their respective and rapidly-changing fields.

Nic Sanchez, a 2010 La Sierra Art+Design graduate is an art director and design lead at the Brooklyn, New York offices of global creative network Stink Studios. He works on television commercials, responsive websites, and 360 brand campaigns that encompass a variety of platforms.

“Without La Sierra, I would never have been introduced to the art and design world at all,” he said. “I’m eternally grateful to the faculty of the art department for opening my eyes to the possibilities of design.”

He noted that quick-learning digital designers who work with apps, websites, interactive installations and other digitally-linked media are in high demand. “Every day a new tool or technology comes out so a designer that has a capacity for using their new-found learnings is invaluable,” he said.

Katie Nahab, a resident of San Francisco’s East Bay, graduated from La Sierra’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program in 2013 and in 2018 earned a Master of Fine Arts in visual development from the Academy of Art University. She is currently a freelance children’s book illustrator and is looking for work in the animation industry or as an art educator. For the Alumni Exhibit she provided illustrations and a book created for her master’s thesis project which is a visual development of her 2D animated feature film, “The Art of: the Moon Riders.” The book shows the design process for developing characters, props and environments.

The animation industry is highly competitive and constantly changing with new software and trends, she said. However, traditional illustration is still in demand. “The greatest kind of growth I see in the field is the merging of traditional and digital media to create something new and unique,” Nahab said.

Her studies at La Sierra were a time of artistic exploration, an expansion of her worldview, and opportunities closeness with fellow students and professors, she said. “There was always someone to turn to for help as well as someone to pull an all-nighter with when the printer wasn’t printing, the computer disobeying, the batik not drying or more than likely, just another day as a printmaking student.”

Jeff Francis, a 1975 graduate of La Sierra became interested in photography while attending La Sierra Academy. From a young age he strived to create photographs that captured the beauty of nature in the style of such masters as Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. As he experimented with cameras and gained knowledge, Francis moved from 35mm film to 4x5 and then 8x10 view cameras. His photographs of the Southwestern canyons and mesas in Utah and Arizona and in California’s national parks eventually graced the pages of Arizona Highways and other publications, as well as nature calendars. He also participated in the prestigious Laguna Arts Festival and exhibited in several galleries.

“Since my early years taking photographs I have never lost my love of the simple beauty and color of God’s creation,” Francis said. “I seek to show the beauty and perfection of nature in an artistic way.”

Elyse Whittier Paek, a 1990 art program graduate, recalled her classes with famed English sculptor and art professor Alan Collins whose iconic, scripture-inspired statues grace the campuses of Seventh-day Adventist universities including La Sierra University. His sculpture titled “Glory of God’s Grace” depicting the parable of the prodigal son anchors the campus’s central plaza. 

Paek, a native of Sydney, Australia, spent 10 years working as an illustrator in Los Angeles at Play House Pictures, Warner Brothers and Nickelodeon studios. She is now a freelance illustrator and runs an online Etsy shop called Artistic Home Portraits. In 2014 she won first place in the Feathered Quill Book Awards for her illustrations in “I’m So Hollywood” of the “Summer Saltz” book series. She and her husband, whom she met at La Sierra, reside in Los Angeles with their boys ages 12 and 15.

“I was so lucky to have been at La Sierra when Mr. Collins was teaching,” said Paek. “He was such a fountain of fine art knowledge and an incredible teacher.” She also noted the positive experience of the university’s “small classes and nurturing environment.”

The artists of the Alumni Exhibit also had words of advice for current art students. Many emphasized the importance of continued artistic exploration and the ability to adjust to perpetual changes in the art world.

Advised Nahab, “Try things you’re bad at. Every artist makes a thousand ugly things before their masterpiece. Also, don’t let your masterpiece stay the best thing you’ve ever done. If you can’t get past it, trash it so you can make some more ugly art that leads to a better masterpiece,” she said.

“Take the opportunity of learning seriously as you will never have this type of time again. Adaption is key pertaining to longevity and survival in an ever-changing creative culture,” said 2017 graduate Ricky Raboteau, global senior designer for K2 Snowboarding. He submitted snowboards with his designs from the 2019 K2 Snowboard Women’s Collection. 

“Don’t stop making, even if you end up in a cubicle,” said Lauren Prado, a 2014 alumna and textile artist whose giant, needlepoint shoe illustrations reach to the top of Brandstater Gallery in the Alumni Exhibit. “It’s important to continue growing and learning as an artist/designer.”