A lot of people told me that I should take art because I am pretty good and I am very creative. I took art one my junior year of high school and it was not very entertaining at all.  It was very structured and everything would have to be done a certain way or we would just color coloring pages. I did not enjoy the course; the best part of going was hanging out with friends. Going to the art exhibit at El Camino Campus Art Gallery, I was a bit worried all the pieces would be over the top or extremely abstract. When I first walked in the pieces almost jump off the wall. Wayne Alaniz Healy’s exhibit The Expressive Line of Wayne Alaniz Healy quickly grabbed my eye and I found all of the pieces very interesting.

At first I did not see any pieces that I liked, but the first piece that caught my eye I instantly found interesting; it is called “Rough Ride” created in two thousand and five with mono silk screening. This piece has a cowboy riding a bull with a deep red sky. The cowboy from far away looks like he only has a green shirt and blue pants on, but as I walked closer I saw all of the various colors that where used to make up the pieces of clothing. The pants specifically have light blue, dark blue, yellow, green, as well as a little bit of white. Even the bull contained some yellow as well as light and dark brown. Healy paid very much attention to details to making sure the cowboy looked like a cowboy and the gate behind the cowboy actually looks like a barbwire gate to contain the bull in.

This piece interested me because half of my family is from Oklahoma so it reminded me of visiting my grandparents on their farm. Rodeos have always interested me as well because I have never been to one before. I also really liked this piece because my boyfriend is a bit of a cowboy so I instantly thought of him when I saw this piece and I believe he would enjoy this piece a lot. This piece reminded me a bit of an optical illusion. Close up all of the different colors are obvious but far away they mix together and look more three-dimensional than two-dimensional.

“God (zilla) and Them”made by mono silk screening, was another piece I really enjoyed. At first glance all I saw was a bright red car that looks like it came out of the sixties. As I walked closer I notice that there was more to the painting. There were two monsters in the background. They almost blended into the night sky painted. The monsters are a dark green with yellow and white accents with their arms reaching out to their sides. One of the monsters is blowing fire towards the car as the car quickly drives away from all of the danger and destruction the monsters are causing.

This piece really caught my eye because I had gone to a car show a few days before I visited the gallery, so this piece reminded me of the joy and excitement I had with my boyfriend at the car show. I also liked this piece because of Healy’s view of how Godzilla looked to him. I am half Japanese but do not know much about japan. Godzilla is an iconic symbol of japan so this piece made me feel like I was connecting with my culture. I also remember seeing my father watching Godzilla so seeing him in a painting brought back childhood memories of staying up late with my dad watching movies. I live by myself so anything that reminds me of my parents makes me feel happy and I enjoy it very much.

The third piece I saw out of the corner of my eye, Una Passion Descuidada, I instantly fell in love with it. This piece has a black background with random spots of color and a human skull painted in the middle of the canvas. The skull is a pale tan, white with red, blue, yellow, and green accents. It also has shadowing as if there is a flashlight underneath the skull. In front of the skull also in the middle of the canvas are two figures painted in the shape of people are floating in the air hugging. They are hiding their faces so they are unseen and are towards the skull. They are painted from the side so neither of their backs is fully visual. The figure to the left is painted red with blue and yellow accents and the one to the right is painted blue with red and green accents. The red one is higher than the blue so its arms are above the blue figure’s shoulders and its legs are wrapped around its hips. The blue figure’s legs are extended to the bottom left corner of the piece.

The second I saw this piece I knew I wanted it in my bedroom. It was almost instant, I saw myself walking through my bedroom door to see this piece hanging above my bed on a sea foam green wall. I have always been fascinated with anatomy and physiology, which is why I want to be a physical therapist. So when I saw this masterpiece it felt as if Healy created this for me. I have not study anatomy in a while, so it felt bittersweet. Sweet because it was so lovely and nice to see something I love so much but bitter as well because I miss studying anatomy. I also enjoy kinesiology a lot, the study of the body’s movement, so seeing they red and blue figures made me imagine them going in for the hug and squeezing each other tightly, even though this piece is painted so there is no actual movement. I quickly connected to this piece and found myself thinking about this piece for many days after the class went to the gallery.

Overall I enjoyed the art gallery, Healy was very clever by combining his culture, Latin art, as well as his job, aerospace, together. After walking through this exhibit I want to return to the Getty Museum and many other interesting museums. I went to the Getty last semester but never had a chance to return. I did not have time to return to the art exhibit for a second time but I wanted too. I plan on going to see the various exhibits from now on. I would recommend my friends to go, we have the same taste in designs and art so I believe they would like it very much. I enjoyed this art exhibit and I learned new ways to create art as well as more about a new artist.