Gallery • 10 Photos

Courtesy of the Artist

Sas's use of the cityscapes in her artwork respresent the awe and wonder that comes with magnifiscent views. This photo is set in Athens, Greece, and shows the beauty of the city as a whole.

The Wenberg Gallery, located on the third floor of the Fonseca Center, is always filled with rows and rows of the colorful and shining art of students. However, this fall the gallery was instead filled with something a little more unique—the art created by faculty.

Opening on Sep. 22 to Oct. 12, the gallery features the art and creations of seven faculty members. Visual Arts Department ChairRachel Langosch, Upper School Visual Arts teachers Cheryl Hajjar, Stephanie Mestyan, Adrian Sas, and Middle School Visual Arts teachers Vicente Saavedra and Bruce Robbins.

While the participants were given no concrete theme, the exhibit serves as a reflection of all the contributors. Rachel Langosch, head of the art department and one of the contributors, shared her takes on the gallery.

“There wasn’t a central question or a theme, but the overarching message that the gallery sends out is that we’re all art teachers, and we all are working artists,” Langosch said.

As Langosch stated, the gallery is a way for the teachers here at Masters to showcase their work and show their students that, just like them, they are artists themselves. It can be easy to forget that the people who spend their days teaching the fundamentals of art are truly masters of their craft.

And while there was no given theme, each artist went in a different direction that focused around a central idea.

Adrian Sas Upper School film teacher & Yearbook advisor

Sas is an artist who expresses herself through many different media. For her works displayed in the gallery, she chose photos that she took over the course of the year, displaying the cityscapes of places from all over the world on a grand scale of approximately 2 x 6 ft. From Athens to New York City, Sas shares the marvel and awe she has for these places.

“I wanted to communicate this sense of wonder when I had found myself perched in these places where I got these vantage points,” Sas said. “I became mesmerized by them in a way, and did my best to capture that.”

Sas continued, “I think it’s also interesting that at this scale, the people kind of disappear from these [cityscapes], and I think that makes the viewer think about the natural and constructed architecture of the landscapes in a whole different way.”

Cheryl Hajjar Upper School Visual Arts teacher

For Hajjar, it is not solely about technique and precision, but seeing what is around you. Her gallery work was deeply inspired by the animals she spends her time with while volunteering at an animal sanctuary.

“I make work based on my relationships with these creatures and the time that I’ve spent with them,” Hajjar said. “I am trying to speak to compassion and perception about how we view animals in our lives. I guess the same way people can open up their minds to differences between various groups of people, different cultures, and different ages,” she continued.

Through ink and paint, she conveys her compassion and love of animals.

Rachel Langosch Head of the Visual Arts Department & Upper School Photography teacher

When Langosch began curating the pieces she wanted to represent her work in the gallery, she just picked what spoke to her the most. From there, she was able to string together a collection of images that shared two stories.

“One body of work is the image, or the images that I shot on film, and it’s kind of like looking, almost from a photojournalistic lens at Paris and Amsterdam,” Langosh said. “There’s kind of a separation between me and the places where I was visiting.”

She continued, “And then the other lens, or the other body of work, was almost from within what it feels like to be a passenger in these foreign spaces, but kind of navigating that in between [space] with my family, in domestic spaces, or in the country, or wherever we were.”

Stephanie Mestyan Upper School Visual Arts & Ceramics teacher

With the complicated chemical process of ceramics that comes with forming, glazing and firing a piece, Mestyan said she enjoys the experimentation and mystery that pottery entails. She believes that part of the appeal of ceramics is the ability to create art that can be held and felt with your fingers, especially as technology changes the landscape of art creation.

“It’s really special to have something, an intimate object, that you’re going to hold and use. It’s the notion that it was created for a purpose from someone… I think it’s really exciting,” Mestyan said.

Luke Wilde Upper School Visual Arts Teacher

In their fifth year of participating in the faculty exhibit, Wilde said they enjoy how it shows students the capabilities of the visual arts department faculty beyond just what they have seen in class. Moreover, Wilde explains that it inspires them as well and hopes that it encourages students to take advantage of the resources available to them.

“I get the chance to bring my students to the gallery to show them things that maybe I can’t do necessarily, but we have these professional artists here that are also teachers that are so technically skilled and also a great resource,” Wilde said.

Bruce Robbins Middle School Visual Arts Teacher

Displaying art around the theme of his childhood pet crow, Robbins wants his students to see that art can take many forms like zines, photography and traditional painting. Since he first started making art, Robbins remembers losing track of time whenever he would sit down to create, but he also recalls the persistence that allowed him to make it as an artist.

“Even when I got frustrated in the process of it, I just pushed myself to work through it, from my very beginning and through the years up to now,” Robbins said.

Vicente Saavedra Middle School Art & Spanish Teacher

Using playful ways to depict geometric shapes, Saavedra said he wants his art to show his students how they can creatively use art after they have mastered the basics. However, beyond this exhibit, he also enjoys creating art for himself without any expectation of showing or selling. Currently, he’s been working on a personal project for three years: an 8 x 9 ft painting of the Greek goddess Artemis after a hunt.

“The [art] process is trying to achieve something that is already in your imagination. [Imagining] how you wanted it to look or feel like, and try to go for that, and then discover how,” Saavedra said.