Words and Photos By Ayden Hortt
On Thursday October 23rd, Chinook Hall held the long awaited Art Reception for Mika Winder and Daisy Zambano-Gomez. Both artists were commissioned by LBCC to make a body of work that is to be displayed in Chinook Hall for the next year. Along with the newly created compositions also sits other work from both of their personal catalogs, so there’s a lot to see. Take a look before it’s gone!
Who are the Artists?
Mika Winder is a current LBCC student and artist based in Albany. Her goal with The Brides, which are mixed media hand-crafted dolls, is to question the expectations of women in society. Exploring topics like sexuality, parenthood and even ideal personality in a strikingly beautiful morbid way. Winder expertly blends bubblegum pop colors with themes of horror and dread to communicate how unrealistic these expectations are. Showing a physical manifestation of how these ideals could chip away at a person. Winder’s other compositions in the installation include primarily digital art, with such examples being God is Here, Are you having fun?, and 82. These are a testament to how Winder has perfected her craft in the digital field, and knowing the context of The Brides being a deviation from her usual work just draws more appreciation of the talent and versatility she holds as an artist.
Daisy Zambrano-Gomez is a Mexican-American artist and LBCC student who sought to tackle self-expression, and give representation to people of color in the artistic world. She captures these ideas in beautifully crafted acrylic paintings such as, That’s Me!, Beauty in Every Form, Clarity, and Platonic Soulmates. According to Zambrano-Gomez these compositions were a form of comfort to create since she represented herself in most of them, allowing her to fully connect to the compositions. This gave her a blank canvas to explore who she was as a person and grow to appreciate any flaws in herself as neat details in her work. Another one of her compositions, Beauty in Every Form explores sexuality and says that no matter how a person feels or identifies they are beautiful. All people are to be valued no matter how they express their sexuality, and it’s a comforting message to represent. Zambrano-Gomez’s other compositions in the installation include a couple of charcoal-graphite sketches that masterfully capture human anatomy in the nude form. Both compositions are called 20 Minutes and 25 Minutes respectively. These are wonderfully done and goes to show that the work in representing humans in any form takes a lot of practice, which in Zambrano-Gomez’s case has worked off excellently and bled into all art she has created.
