Art Institute students show their creations

By Becky Bosshart

Published Monday, Jan. 19, 2009 | 10:57 a.m.

Updated Friday, Jan. 23, 2009 | 9:14 p.m.

They toiled for a year. Spent countless hours on assignments. They studied artists and designers to hone their craft.

Art Institute of Las Vegas students now have their recognition and gallery time at the school’s annual juried student show. It features works in design, media arts, culinary arts and fashion.

The Gallery at the Art Institute of Las Vegas exhibit, which runs until Feb. 23, will feature the top 35 submitted pieces, said Anne Dean, the school’s director of public relations. The Art Institute is at 2350 Corporate Circle.

Best in show winner Mariya Walker, a media arts and animation student, won a $1,000 scholarship for her “Harley & Earl” sculpture. Landry Blume won the second place $750 scholarship for “Imagination,” a poster he created for the Las Vegas Office of Cultural Affairs as part of a design capstone class.

This will be the last show for Blume, a graphic design student. He graduates in June. Blume worked with the cultural affairs office to create an ad design for its Target Children’s Book Festival, which was in November 2008. The poster shows a child sitting on a chair made of books. The child is envisioning all of the wonders found in a book: adventure, knowledge and exotic travel.

“Being a photo visual person myself, when I read, my brain is full of pictures,” Blume said. “So, I wanted to translate that into a piece of artwork that shows, when someone is reading a book, it’s not just the words on the paper, it’s the ideas in their head.”

Blume worked about 48 hours over two weeks on the assignment. This project opened up potential freelance work with the city, he said.

Rick Quemado, a media arts and animation student, won the third place $500 scholarship for his “The Truth About You and Me” sketch.

Fifty pieces were submitted this year, ranging from a faux cake covered in a green fondant in an enchanted garden design from the culinary art program, to an animated character sculpture of two gas station attendants.

Becky Bosshart can be reached at 990-7748 or [email protected].