Even though they’re not students, faculty got the chance to showcase their artistic viewpoints and expertise. The San Diego Mesa College annual faculty art show opened with a reception on Sep. 8 followed by a lecture from Cindy Zimmerman and Wendell Kling.

During the reception, when artist Barbra Sexton was asked about her inspiration behind her pieces, she said “the way I like to look at my art, I have ideas when I produce it.”

“I like viewers to look at it and interrupt it as their own set of experiences, certainly I had different ideas putting images together to create a dialogue or reaction from the viewer,” Sexton said.

Sexton will have some of her work on display downtown at the new library starting on the 24 and the show will be going on through November.

Juan Carlos Toth had one of the more interactive pieces of the night. He encouraged the viewers of the gallery to draw whatever they felt like onto his blank red canvas. It got interesting from there with a wide range of results from “R.I.P. Harambe” to flowers, hearts and rainbows.

“I just don’t want people to forget to you have the ability to shake things up even if its in the little way of a gallery,” Toth said, when discussing what his painting meant.

“Just the feeling of being able to do that, everyone hangs on to that and keeps it going,” Toth said.

Once the reception ended Zimmerman got the lecture rolling and gave aspiring artists some great advice.

“Often students will ask me how they can make it as an artist and I say form a collective, be of service,” Zimmerman said.

After Zimmerman finished, Kling got into the action with some more great advice to students of the arts.

“If you cant make it good make it big. If you can’t make it big, make it red, and if you cant make it red put a light bulb in it,” Kling said.

Staff members who have work on display in the exhibit include: Angel Adame, Brian Benfer, Nathan Betschart, Kraig Cavanaugh, Patricio Chavez, John Chwekun, Lynn Engstrom, Christopher Ferreria, Misty Hawkins, Lisa Hutton, Wendell Kling, Mario Lara, Georgia K. Laris, Emiko Lewis-Sanchez, Hames Mahacek, Alessandra Moctezuma, Amy Paul, Jacqueline Ramirez, Robert Sanchez, Barbara Sexton, Juan Carlos Toth, Sandra Wascher, Clay West, and Cindy Zimmerman.

The exhibit will be on display Sept. 8 through Sept. 28 and can be viewed Mondays and Tuesdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.