Spring Gallery Displays - A Deep Dive into the Process

By: Violet Monda '27

As the Cate community transitions from Spring Family Weekend to the end of the year, the incredible gallery displays are the first thing coming down. Each day, people walked through the gallery, taking in the pieces on display. Every piece was unique and different,  so let's reminisce on the long process that brought us to each work of art. These different displays range from photos to paintings made using charcoal and oil pastels, to varying ceramic pieces, and much more. Over the last couple of months, each of these displays was created by different artists in classes of varying levels. All of these pieces feature a story and a challenge behind the road to creating them. Here is a peek into the long process and ideation stages:

Brooke Friedman, a senior student taking Advanced Art, was one of many artists who created ceramic pieces throughout the gallery. She spent hours upon hours creating each piece, but her favorites, she says, are her “three-tiered lamp, two-tiered lamp, and Mify sculpture.” These three pieces were featured together, each showing a different aspect of her craftsmanship. The two lamps created were similar to one another and took the longest time to create. Each was made with clay, which was sculpted on the wheel, fired, and varnished. She inserted pieces of paper into each cut-out. On these pieces of paper, she hand-sewed each pattern. She recalled this challenge, saying, “Each panel took around 15 minutes to sew, and there were around 20 panels.” The Mify sculpture was created using only clay and varnish, but it caused a whole different world of problems. The sculpture on display was Brooke’s second try at creating the character because the first one, sadly,  did not make it through the firing process. 

Another artist who spent a great deal of time on the show and had multiple pieces on display was Francesca Sutch, another student in the Advanced Art class. She created three different collections of paintings for her senior inquiry project, each with a different focus: land, people, and oil. All nine of these paintings were “created over the span of two months,” and each was painted on a wood panel using oil paint. This inquiry project was about recognizing and showing appreciation for the land on which we live, and why we find it so beautiful. 

She reminisces about her favorite piece, saying that the one she “enjoyed most was Pelicans and Seals.” This painting, which was featured in her land collection, represents the conservation of land and how we share this land with the wildlife around us. Each part of the painting represents a different piece of Carpenteria's culture. The oil represents the ever-present oil rigs on our horizon, and the wood panels on which the paintings are created represent the Chumash people.

Amelia Riepe, another artist who shared her work in this display, is a student in Studio 1. She just discovered her passion for painting and creating, taking time out of each day to spend it in the art loft. Her most prized piece was her Koi fish painting, featured right and center as each student walked into the gallery. While the prompt for this piece was open-ended, and she “took a long time to decide what to paint,” the end product was exactly what she “had pictured in mind.” Her process was long, taking over a month total to complete the acrylic painting on canvas. She discusses her process, remarking that “the most challenging thing was putting movement into the water.”  

While each of these artists took on completely different approaches using very different materials, each of their pieces tells a story. Other works on display deserve just as much recognition, including those made of other materials. Multiple photographers were featured using different lenses and exposures. Each ceramicist created drastically different pieces, and many, many more artists were exhibited. These displays were incredible to look at and to uncover their untold stories. Everyone in the Cate community is sad to see them go, but we can’t wait to see what is created next year…