Reporter’s Notebook: TCC students participate and showcase work in the annual art exhibition

Part Two: The art contest winners present unexpected concepts.

Editor’s Note: The review of the TCC (Tulsa Community College) Student Art Exhibition 2023 will be a four-part series. Several program entries will be profiled. This is the second review of the series.

The TCC Student Art Exhibition 2023 was a great success. Three TCC art students were selected by jurors, who are not affiliated with TCC, to receive top honors. The students were Koda Miles, Ace Stiles, and Kolby White.

TCC Student Art Exhibition 2023 is a display of a variety of art, such as sculpture, drawings, paintings, jewelry, and ceramics. Photo by Tatyana Nyborg.

The jurors liked Koda Miles’s “Rearing Eudemonia” sculpture and marked it as the winning artwork or “Best in Show.” The sculpture is innovative because it contains unusual materials, such as worms, organic scraps, torn pages of a Bible, dirt, pine, plexiglass, aluminum, and glass. The artwork expands a person’s imagination beyond the traditional understanding of how a sculpture should look like. Not many people have seen a piece of art with living creatures, in this case, worms.

The jurors selected Koda Miles’s sculpture “Rearing Eudemonia” as “Best in Show.” The sculpture is innovative because it contains atypical materials, such as worms, organic scraps, torn pages of a Bible, dirt, pine, plexiglass, aluminum, and glass. The artwork expands people’s imagination beyond the traditional understanding of a sculpture. Photo by Tatyana Nyborg.

“I am flattered. It is an honor to be recognized among these (TCC) great artists,” Miles says.

Miles is finishing her studies at TCC this year. She will transfer to the University of Arkansas to pursue a bachelor’s degree in art.

Ace Stiles and Kolby White were granted “Juror’s Choice” awards. Stiles, just like Miles, decided to choose unusual materials for the sculpture “Hand Me Down.” The artwork is a combination of steel rods, wood, and fabric.

Ace Stiles was recognized with the “Juror’s Choice” award. Stiles, just like Miles, decided to choose uncommon materials for the sculpture “Hand Me Down.” The artwork is a combination of steel rods, wood, and fabric. Photo by Tatyana Nyborg.

White swept the audience’s attention with the acrylic on canvas painting “Gentleman’s Pleasures.” The painting is very expressive and provocative. The art portrays an undressed male sitting on a sofa, reading a “Playboy” magazine while smoking and drinking. The artist tried to break into the subject of sexuality, which is quite often a point of contention in modern society.

Kolby White swept the audience’s attention with the acrylic on canvas painting “Gentleman’s Pleasures.” The painting was also recognized with the “Juror’s Choice” award. Photo by Tatyana Nyborg.

See the third review of the TCC Student Art Exhibition 2023 in the next edition of the TCC Connection.

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