Drawing a crowd

Graduate student Alexandria Canchola will host an a gallery starting today, featuring paintings and installations that allow the viewer to navigate as if they were a character in the story.

Production of the show, titled “Not that Tragic,” began one year ago and uses visual artwork to illustrate a story she also wrote.

“Last year, I [began] working on a book project called “Not that Tragic,” so a lot of my master of fine arts show is about the book I’m trying to create,” said Canchola. “I’m trying to let the viewer experience a narrative in a different format, so a lot of it has different inspiration and this idea that you’re essentially walking through a book or the world of a book, transforming the experience you’ll get from holding a book and reading the book, the solitude, the loneliness you would experience and transforming that into a 3-D atmosphere.”

In order to convey the story, which focuses on the documentation of the human experience, through images and structures alone, Canchola had to strategically lay out the works and utilize the gallery space efficiently, she said.

“I’m trying to create a labyrinth throughout the gallery,” Canchola said. “So, [in a way,] I’m choosing the way the viewer will experience the work, but everything was very strategic and planned out, keeping the space in mind.”

The works were produced using mediums such as cardboard and gouache paint.

Robert Gilbert, an associate professor of graphic design, who serves as one of Canchola’s graduate advisers, admires her versatility in use of mediums and appreciation for the classic arts.

“Something that has impressed me about her as a graduate student is her interest in working with different media,” Gilbert said. “For instance, in her show she has words she has cut out with a laser cutter and she also works with gouache, which is a water-based paint and not a lot of people use it. It’s a very old-fashioned medium many people do not use now. She’s also interested in typography, image-making and printmaking. She also did an artist’s residency at the Otis College of Art and Design, which is one of the top art institutes.”

Canchola appreciates the opportunity to host the gallery, as well as the experience she gained from it.

 “It has been a real learning opportunity for me,” she said. “Usually, I work very small, gouache paint on paper, so a lot of my work is all illustrated. So, it’s been difficult trying to figure out how to change what I do well, like how to make them feel more real as if you’re walking through [them].”

The process, although enjoyable, has presented difficulties that Canchola overcame by adjusting her creative process.

“Usually, color is a big part of my creative process, so when figuring out how to create that with a painting, you have a rectangle,” she said. “It’s an ongoing growing process and you can see how it’s always changing and how the decisions being made affect each other, so you put one color down and the next color. This situation has been really different in that I’m having to use my imagination to put all these puzzle pieces together–like how do they all fit? Because it’s no longer on that piece of paper with the rectangle, so it’s been a completely different process. I’m enjoying it; it is challenging.”  

The show continues through Sept. 4 in the Visual Arts Gallery on the Edinburg campus. The opening reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday.