TCC campus gives student artists the tools for success

The paintings were impressive -- high-quality, unique subject matters, a fresh approach from unknown hands.

A closer inspection revealed the unlikely source: Tarrant County College's sleepy Northwest Campus.

But this wasn't a faculty exhibit. These were student works, hanging next to some of the best offerings from commercial galleries in Fort Worth. And the student work didn't suffer in comparison. It held its own, the result of a thriving but low-profile student art program at TCC that is producing standout results.

What is happening is the work of Mike Matthews, dean of humanities at the Northwest Campus. For the past four years, he has been hiring high-caliber instructors to nurture the art majors and lure others into the fold. He doesn't have TCC's best studio spaces or the most well-equipped, but he finds ways to inspire the students.

His departmental budget covers the dues for his campus to be a member of the Fort Worth Art Dealers Association so his students can hang with the pros. He and Gloria Mills, dean of science and math, fund the school's permanent art collection of student work, which numbers well over 100 pieces.

They do it, says Matthews, "because we wanted art students to see what other students have done, and to use the walls as a teaching space."

The collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, digital works and ceramics is carefully framed or displayed on multiple floors of the administration building, and as the collection has grown, it has spread across the campus to begin filling adjacent buildings.

Instructors have asked for art to be added to their wings, and Matthews has obliged. He has carved out several mini-galleries across the campus. When Malcolm Jackson, the police academy coordinator at the campus's Criminal Justice Center, asked that art be included in his facility, Matthews took one look at the building's large sky-lit lobby and took over the entire space for a gallery.

The galleries and hallways are a teaching tool. Art instructor Tommy Fitzpatrick takes his first-year painting students on tours of the permanent collection to point out the differences between acrylic paintings and those done in oil, to discuss portraits, landscapes and still lifes, and to subtly inspire the new crop of students to aim for inclusion.

His plan works.

When Heather Braman saw it, she vowed "to get a painting in the permanent collection."

This was rather far-fetched at the time. Braman, by her own admission, had "zero background in art." The 28-year-old had attended Texas A&M University for five years, taking science courses, and she "hated every second of it." She enrolled in TCC to find a direction and signed up for art courses on a lark. Almost immediately she found her comfort zone.

"This is where I should have been all along," she says. After three semesters at TCC, two of Braman's paintings have been purchased for the permanent collection and she is moving on to the University of Texas at Arlington as a painting major.

Braman is one of a half-dozen exceptional female artists who recently passed through the TCC art department.

"There were a lot of strong female painters, and they had issues. I liked that a lot, as a guy, to see things from their perspective," says Fitzpatrick.

One of the best painters "with issues" is Michelle Brandley. She came to TCC to put together a portfolio. She already had a fine-arts degree from California State University but needed a body of work to apply to graduate school. She completed 16 paintings in one year and this fall will attend Texas Christian University, where she was given a full scholarship to the fine-arts master's program.

Brandley, 27, takes on eating and body-image issues.

"I struggle with weight and food -- the obsessions, and the secretive nature of eating. I could be morbidly obese, but I paint it out," she says. Three of her works are in the TCC permanent collection, and her paintings have been included in several solo and group shows in the area.

She has painted herself licking chocolate batter as it drips down her arm. Another painting shows a detail of her hand dipping a clutch of french fries in ketchup. A self-portrait with an apple stuck in her mouth, a la a roast suckling pig, titled Crime, is one of Matthews' purchases for the collection. Brandley sold the french fry painting, Eat, and Crime to him for $500 apiece.

"He got a smoking deal on those," she says. He had to pay more for Euphoria, a painting of a chocolate cake.

Matthews says he spends $3,000-$4,000 a year on art. Mills estimates her contribution at about $1,000. They don't always agree on purchases and, on occasion, one of them will find it necessary to pony up the entire amount for a piece. Matthews says he does not negotiate price with students; they decide what they want to charge prior to the semiannual student shows. They usually sell between $200 and $600, although some go for four figures.

Matthews doesn't wait long to make his selections -- he knows in advance which works he wants, having been tipped off by the instructors. And he has competition. The college president buys, and so do other students, faculty and collectors from the community who have found the student shows a great source of inexpensive art.

One of Brandley's works sold within minutes of being hung on the gallery wall. Another student saw it and whipped out a checkbook. Matthews still rues the day that one got away, but he is also encouraged that students are learning to be art collectors as well as artmakers.

"I want our students to be consumers of art," he said. "We need to teach the process of acquisitions, and the different types of collections that can be built."

As the permanent collection has expanded, more people have gotten involved. There also have been works donated to the collection by students and faculty.

Angel Fernandez, a former instructor at the Northwest Campus who is now in charge of the art program at the Trinity River Campus, has bought pieces by Brantley and Braman for his personal collection. They are so good at what they do, he says, that it is a disservice to refer to it as "student" work. He bought a piece by Celia Cortez in 2009 and donated it to the collection.

"That's how much I believe in it," he says

Matthews pays for all the framing out of his own pocket. And he's not worried about what will happen when he and Mills, both 64, are no longer at the college.

"I'm sure it will go on," Matthews says. "The more we do this, the more I know it's the right thing to do."

For now, it is inspiring art students and bringing in students who had no idea they were artists. Matthews purchased two self-portraits by Sophia Ceballos, both done in a first-semester painting class. Her initial effort is nothing special; the third one, though, is quite a departure. Matthews bought them to illustrate the strides that students make in a brief period of time.

"You've seen so many like this," Matthew says, pointing to Ceballos's first effort, "but none like this," he says, pointing to the second.

Ceballos, 20, says seeing her work on the walls "was a real boost to my self-confidence. I know I am capable of bettering my skills." She plans to continue painting and has been accepted to UTA's art program.

Another student with no painting experience found his way into the art department by accident. Ryan Harvey, 22, was a political science major.

"I'd never taken any art classes, but this looked like fun," he says. His first painting was admittedly "horrible." The second was bought for the permanent collection. The third was published on the cover of the school's annual literary publication, and Harvey is applying for TCU's graphic-design program.

The collection, and Matthews' determination that art be spread throughout the campus, has touched more than the art department. It has also become a vehicle for multidepartmental interaction and learning.

Jackson uses the rotating exhibitions in the Criminal Justice Center to reach out to the general student population, and to engage his police cadets in art appreciation. He found two candidates for the police academy when they visited his building because of the art gallery.

"I don't know of another police academy in Texas that has an art gallery," he says, "but we are proud to display the students' work, and we cherish every opportunity to engage with them."

Gaile Robinson is the Star-Telegram art and design critic, 817-390-7113.