A Review of the Bobcat Art Show
May 14th, 2024 | Emma Carrero
From April 4th to May 3rd, La Galería (El Portal 120) held the annual Bobcat Art Show displaying pieces created and submitted by UC Merced students, staff, and faculty. Without a set theme for the show, the artists were allowed to freely showcase whatever they deemed most significant to them. Many artists opted to showcase their appreciation for nature, their heritage, and their identity. In this piece, this author highlights the most provocative, profound, and unique pieces from some of UC Merced’s best talents.
Alignment and Dissolution, by Cayce Fylling, A.T. Standriff. Photo by Emma Carrero
As soon as I walked through the doors, my attention was immediately caught by Cayce Fylling’s Alignment and Dissolution. A blend of mathematics and art, two very distinct subjects, sat front and center in the gallery. My first impressions went immediately to space, and I wondered momentarily if this was a replica of a bursting star. Upon further inspection and the reading of the caption, I understood the birth of chaos that this digital art portrayed. The shape of the arrow represents the simulated bacteria, highlighting how they each have their own direction. The serene blue background maintains a backbone of order while the popping red geometric shapes tear a hole through the piece, eliminating any direction these fallen bacteria had left. Yet this chaos does not bring destruction, but rather a unique new colony. Despite how art and math are often framed as adversaries, placed as diametric opposites, Fylling’s piece opts for a new perspective on the two and highlights how they can be used together to create something altogether new and exciting.
adulthood, by Sean James-Hickey. Photo by Emma Carrero.
Continuing my walk, I was intrigued by Sean James-Hickey's collection. His three digital art pieces and one colored pencil on paper piece reflected different stages of life. Out of the four, adulthood was the one that spoke to me most directly. An exhausted young man faces us with a missing arm and a bleak cityscape behind him. The contrast between the young farmer’s hat and the industrial buildings reminds us of the childhood liberty we had before committing our careers and lives to urbanity. The man’s missing arm is a physical embodiment of how feels to be on your own and taking on multiple responsibilities at once. One feels a destruction of the body. The cartoon style profoundly juxtaposes the reality of adulthood with a nostalgic essence from our youth.
In Between the Lines, by Angela Roberts. Photo by Emma Carrero.
Highlighting and deconstructing another dichotomy, In Between The Lines from Angela Roberts depicts the beauty of technology in the world of nature. The powerlines in her work take on outlines of animals while the complimentary desert fills in the body. The giraffe constructed by metal stands monolithic amongst spotted scrubland and yellow sand. The irony, as she explains in her caption, is that technology and nature each have an artistic side to them and often draw reference from each other, despite their occasional conflict.
Egret Breeding Season, by Noorulain Irshad. Photo by Emma Carrero.
Earning the title of Best Bobcat Pride, Noorulain Irshad crocheted and hand-beaded a scene of egrets grouped together in front of a Taco Bell. This small yet meticulously-detailed piece reminds us despite mankind’s ever-shifting influence on the landscape, nature will always be nature. In highlighting the egrets and the Taco Bell, two mainstays of life in Merced, Irshad’s piece reminds us of how much natural beauty surrounds this campus and how close we are to wildlife, a unique point of pride not seen in any other UC.
Journey, by Anaeh Graham. Photo by Emma Carrero.
Anaeh Graham’s Journey was awarded the Best in Show. Graham creatively covered a blank book with textures like soil and plants dedicated for her time here in UC Merced. Each page is filled with soil, rocks, and foliage from the campus locations she visited most often, from her freshman year to her senior year. On the cover she folded paper into a car, a plane, and a butterfly, each representing her milestones at UC Merced. However, as the title of her piece emphasizes, it’s not the destination that counts, but the journey ahead.
When reached out to for comment, Anaeh said, “A degree is forever, but so is the journey you took to get it! Have fun, make friends, and enjoy college!” She uniquely takes a book and repurposes it for a three-dimensional keepsake, and in doing so reminds us to take joy and beauty from even the most mundane of our surroundings. As college students, it can be easy to only focus on the end and not enjoy our journey in academia before fully assimilating into the working world.
