March 29, 2018 — As she waits for a kidney transplant, 2005 Art alumnus Melissa Pardoe of San Diego decided to tame the feelings colliding inside of her by creating a ceramic piece.
“It’s a torso with no arms, no legs and a flame in the lower portion,” Pardoe said. “I guess I feel like the fire represents the burning up of my previous self and going on into this new journey.”
The tree depicted in the piece, which is black with gold accents, is a Coast Live Oak, which she has seen slowly recover after wildfires.
“So in essence, the gold is like the light at the end of the tunnel or the spark in one’s soul,” she said. “Not destroyed by the burns and the soul that survives them.”
Pardoe’s piece is among more than 100 submitted by CSU Channel Islands (CSUCI)’s Art alumni in honor of the University’s 15th anniversary last year.
“Sweet 15” will open in the Napa Main Gallery April 2 through 14 with a reception on April 14, the last day of the exhibit, from 6 to 9 p.m. in Napa Hall.
“We’re super excited because this is the first time we’ve ever done anything like this,” said Art Program Chair Luke Matjas. “We decided to invite every Art graduate from the last 15 years to exhibit their work. The work is still coming in, but we think there will easily be 100 to 150 pieces.”
Matjas, who put the show together with help from Art Lecturer Christophe Bourély and other faculty, says the show includes everything from paintings to sculpture to mixed media and everything in between.
There’s a small stained-glass piece that lights, a study in orange skulls, self-portraits and social statements, to name just a few of the submissions.
“The most inspiring thing is seeing how creative our graduates are out there,” Matjas said. “We’re seeing professional work coming in from students working as designers or video artists. Submissions can be commercial artwork. I even told them, joking, that if they wanted to submit an Excel spread sheet they thought was interesting, that was O.K. too!”
Some of the work is autobiographical, such as a piece created by 2006 Art graduate Ryan Garcia, who now works as a Senior User Experience Designer within CSUCI’s Information Technology Services. Garcia created a large vinyl graphic design piece that reflects on his time skateboarding around the campus as a college student and his role now as a parent.
“For me it was about reflecting on my skateboarding days as well as some of my early design projects here at CSUCI,” Garcia said. “The piece itself is about the narrative that happens in my own head, to this day, just looking at a concrete ledge out on the street and the feeling of wanting to attempt some skateboarding trick on it.”
Matjas pointed out that some students, like Pardoe, specialized in one medium but submitted a piece from another medium. Pardoe’s emphasis was photography and graphic design, but she took a ceramics class at CSUCI and enjoyed it, so she took another after she graduated, and felt a ceramic piece was the best way to express her feelings about her upcoming transplant.
Pardoe was born with a genetic disease called Alport syndrome, which can affect hearing and eyesight. When Pardoe’s hearing started to fail about four years ago, she knew the disease was catching up with her. She looks and feels fine, but has been on the transplant list since August.
A childhood friend who is like a sister to Pardoe, an only child, has offered to donate a kidney and is now undergoing testing and evaluation to see if she’s a match. Pardoe said she can hardly put her gratitude into words.
“It’s kind of like, what’s the real meaning of BFF,” Pardoe said. “She took it to a whole new level.”