HFC’s Glazer serves as judge for MCC’s Student Art and Design Exhibition

On August 5, HFC art instructor/director of exhibitions Steve Glazer served as the judge of Muskegon Community College (MCC)’s 56th Annual MCC Student Art and Design Exhibition.

Every year, MCC’s art faculty selects artwork from hundreds of students’ artistic contributions during the academic year. This year's exhibition featured artwork that MCC’s art faculty considered the best of the best.

Glazer, who has taught art for more than 30 years, 16 at HFC, was chosen as judge because his colleagues at MCC wanted someone not affiliated with their educational institution.

“I don’t know any of the students, so I can be objective. When we have art shows at HFC, we bring in outside judges because they don’t know our students,” said Glazer. “MCC sets up their shows like we do: They take the best work out of each of the art classes throughout the school year and spotlight them.”

Choosing the winners

The winners are:

• First Place ($400): Mychalla Belknap for her Edgar Allen Poe-inspired figure drawing, rendered in charcoal. “This is a really nice drawing that took time to plan out and to actually create,” said Glazer. “Very nicely done, especially from a student in her first two years of college.”
• Second Place ($300): Cassidy Armstrong for her linear perspective drawing from observation, rendered in graphite. “This is a really nice hallway perspective drawing. We do the same project at HFC. What stood out to me was the highlights and shadows on the hallway floor. I had the feeling from looking at the drawing that I was a student on an ‘industrial gray’ painted floor in a typical school hallway.”
• Third Place ($200): Katherine Kepner for her figure drawing, rendered in India ink. “This is a very good example of the principle that one doesn’t always have to fill the page to complete the piece,” said Glazer. “In fact, the figure is missing part of its body (on the viewer’s left), but that doesn’t take away from the drawing at all. In fact, it enhances it.”
• Honorable Mention ($100): Floria Mason for her ceramics sculpture, rendered in clay.
• Honorable Mention ($100): Caleb B. Geise for his sculpture called “Anything but a Box,” rendered in cardboard.
• Honorable Mention ($100): Katelyn Vanderwoude for her raku vase, rendered in clay.
• Honorable Mention ($100): Bernadette Clark for her drawing, a texture study, rendered in India ink and coffee.

Traditionally, the award winners are announced in June at a public reception in MCC’s Overbrook Art Gallery, where the exhibit usually appears throughout the summer, but that wasn’t possible due to the coronavirus. However, a video of Glazer appearing in the gallery giving his explanations on why he chose the award-winning was created. The artwork will be displayed at the gallery until Friday, Sept. 18.

Glazer’s perspective on how he chose the winning artwork

Glazer explained his thought processes on why he chose the winning artwork.

“I looked for artwork that was well done – artwork that looks thought-out, and someone took the time to do a good job and follow the project’s parameters,” he said. “Several projects they did are not much different from what we’re doing at HFC. A few pieces just struck my eye right when I walked in the room. I walked in, took a few glances, then walked to another end of the gallery and took notes. I walked to the center of room, looked at everything at that vantage point. Then I went back to the entrance and looked around a third time, deciding what stood out. Which of these is best, and why.”

He confessed it was a tough call deciding first place. Two pieces of Belknap's and Kepner’s artwork were submitted. In the end, Glazer went with Belknap's piece.

“It was a very well-done drawing. I closely considered the third place one, a drawing of someone who looked like they were partially dozing. It showed that the student understood that an artist doesn’t have to totally fill the page, or in this case, draw the entire body, to complete the picture. With Belknap, she completed the total picture, which made sense, because everything worked as part of the picture. It was a tough call,” explained Glazer.

“A really neat experience”

What Glazer found encouraging was seeing how similar the best artwork at MCC was to the best artwork at HFC.

“It wasn’t exactly the same across the board, but close,” he said. “I thought it was a really neat experience. It was a chance to see what another college’s art department is doing across the state and have firsthand knowledge of it. It gave me ideas of how we can keep improving our program and student experiences at HFC.”