On May 14, the Diana Burger Art Gallery held its 75th annual Student Show, welcoming submissions from students from all majors. More than 400 students submitted artwork, with 126 artists ultimately selected for the exhibition. From photography to mixed media pieces, each work reflects each artist’s own perspective.

Over 200 works are currently displayed at the Diana Berger from now to June 8.

This curation of the show was shaped by the gallery staff, who played a quiet but intentional role in shaping the exhibition

Inside the gallery, every wall reflects a series of decisions made collaboratively by student workers. Themes emerged slowly as they got together and discussed how they would come to the decisions of what pieces were chosen and where they would be displayed within the gallery. This allowed each section of the gallery to take shape.

“The curation of this entire show was absolutely a collaborative effort,” Parajas said. “There are a lot of different philosophies across all of the different walls, and even the backroom is themed a certain way.”

The process is not only about categorizing the artwork, but also allowing the pieces to speak to each other. Ruby Gonzalez, another gallery student worker, explained how this result came to be. All students had taken the time to think about what pieces they believed fit together and could send some sort of message.

“For instance, this section we’re standing in, we wanted this room to maybe be about love and community and nature, so we tried putting those pieces together,” Gonzalez said.

The sense of flow is visible across the whole exhibition, where the student moves from a quiet, personal piece into bold, expansive installations.

The ease and design of the layout helps each section build from the last, creating a unified exhibition.

Student Artwork

This is Quin Wang’s first time having her art displayed. She was very excited to see her art being hung and to meet many amazing artists, as she can relate to them, since she now has the experience of being an artist. Wang also thanks her professor as they did a great job teaching her.

Wang’s inspiration behind her art was the circle of life. As you see the skull of the animal, it shows the animal is dead, but it is something new, so she tried using the concept that something that had passed can be something new.

“All the things pass, new things come around,” Wang said.

Mark Dávila is a Project Expert for the Diana Berger Art Gallery at Mt. SAC. While he also teaches at a private academy, he’s also a freelance independent artist. Dávila has been submitting and participating in the Diana Berger gallery exhibitions since 2017.

Dávila explains that seeing his art displayed feels “exhilarating. It lets me share my vision with the public and fellow artists. I like to stand by my art and kind of see what other people are saying when they view it,” Dávila said.

His inspiration behind his work is an Aztec goddess, who is represented in a reclaimed skateboard. Dávila believes there’s not much representation in Chicano Mexican Latin Heritage.

Davila wanted to make sure that representation is the important part of his work, especially with the recent social climate that the Latino and Chicano community is fighting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Dávila explains that the ice in his art is to represent ICE, where blood is dripping to show all the ICE raids. Especially for him, he experienced witnessing how it affects his friends and family.

“This was my political outcry to kind of express my feelings about the political landscape right now,” said Dávila.

Jesus Ramirez is another Mt. SAC alumnus who’s also participating in the gallery. He’s been submitting art since the last student art showcase, although he didn’t have enough involvement this year, he still had a lot of fun.

“It’s a great opportunity for students to have a chance to look into sort of the gallery scene,” Ramirez said.

For his “Zelda Coil Pot”, his inspiration behind it was from the game design in the Legend of Zelda, and for his piece “Landscape”, it was based on a photo he took when he went for a hike. The art showcases multiple paintbrush marks that are laid over one another in a way to mimic a floral look.

This is Arturo Valencia’s second semester here at Mt. SAC and his first time participating in the gallery.

“This is actually my first time that I have had the opportunity among all these talented artists,” Valencia said.

His piece “Nocturnal Frog” was for an assignment where he chose an animal, in this case a frog, as it is something mystic and nocturnal, which had actually attracted him to paint the nocturnal frog. For his second piece, “Timeless,” Valencia wanted to capture the illusion of time and the idea of constantly wanting to go back in time for a loved one.

Sophia Gutierrez has been submitting art since her third year at Mt. SAC, and this year she submitted a mixed media art piece where she tried to incorporate what it is like to have ADHD. She used mixed media as a way to show what it looks like inside her brain, adding many figures moving throughout the piece.

“Sometimes it could be a lot. So that’s why I called it a state of madness because sometimes you have random thoughts,” Gutierrez said.

Kathy Lo expressed that seeing her art up on display feels so great because people can come and see her art and meet her, which encourages her a lot.

Her inspiration behind her art is the curiosity she has about muscles and the power that muscles can carry, as she tries to incorporate a life-like body.

“I really like muscles, so at least it’s like a life sculpture,” Lo said.

Fernanda Perez submitted two art pieces, one being “Distant Memories” created back in 2022 where she was taking beginning art class, she mentioned that when she was creating the piece it was based on her hobbies she had at the time when it was being created.

“It was based on stuff that was like my personal hobbies and stuff. So they’re not as close to me as before,” Perez said.

While for her ceramic piece, she took a beginning course at Mt. SAC, where she fell in love with ceramics. Her first piece, “Against The Odds,” which is displayed, is one of her favorite projects she created. Her inspiration behind her art piece is the story of a koi, where swimming against water inspired her the most, especially when she was going through hardships.

This is Denise Flores’ first time having her art selected. Flores notes that seeing her art is really cool, and she was nervous as she would see her art next to other pieces.

Flores got into art as she was inspired by her cousin Chessa Breanne Bermeo, who also participated in the gallery. For one of her pieces, the “Sun, Moon, Star,” was inspired by her closest friends, as she considers them her moon and sun. Flores tried capturing her friends the exact way they wanted to be seen. Some style themselves similarly to a clown, and others almost like a mermaid. Flores’s work perfectly captures their true selves but also shows how opposite they are, like the sun and moon.

“I always saw them as like the sun and moon,” Flores said.

Her other piece, “Breakthrough,” was her most difficult due to her struggling with realism; her professor, Kirk Pedersen, had helped Flores get back into art. Pedersen tried his best to help Flores with her realism piece. While she was creating “Breakthrough,” she got stuck and went to Pedersen for advice. He had told her to take a break and work on another piece.

“He told me to experience other pieces and not touch this one, but I ended up touching that one,” Flores said.

This is Flor Fonseca’s first time being part of the gallery and submitting art; she claims that it is all new to her and that she feels a sense of pride.

“I’m excited. I feel like my artist is appreciated, and you know, like the time I put into it,” Fonseca said.

Fonseca submitted three artworks, one of which was “Something Fishy,” which was her wanting to show her surrealist skills, while commenting on how fish aren’t typically seen as emotional creatures.

For her second artwork, “Creepy Cutie,” Fonseca wanted to add the contrast between cute and creepy. As shown in the background of her art, she added ribbon and many cute, sparkly drawings. Fonseca added a centipede, as they are known to look creepy and nasty, but as for her, she loves centipedes, which allowed her to create a perfect contrast for her art.

Lastly, her last piece, “Ice Cream Dream,” is a monochromatic piece for her inspiration. She had a character in her, which is a little banana that can fly. Fonseca wanted to add a dream-like escape with loads of food similar to the movie “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.”

Bermeo is an illustration major, and it is her first time having her art displayed. She claims it is very exciting and nerve-racking to see her art.

“It’s really great seeing all my hard work kind of cultivated into the show,” Bermeo said.

“Puppy Party,” an assignment for an illustration course, was inspired by her puppy’s birthday at the time, which she wanted to incorporate, while having to include an animal. “Mananggal,” was inspired by Filipino culture, and ultimately was displayed on a skate deck. The Mananggal is a vampire-like creature, and she added her own spin.

Eduardo Rosas is a graphic designer and animation illustrator. This is his first time submitting art to the gallery.

“It feels great, you know, we walked in here and I was beaming in the ear,” Rosas said, expressing his excitement for being selected to be a part of the gallery.

Rosas struggled with burnout when he first started with his artwork. He decided to go to a lake, and cool off, where he got his inspiration from, where he added a fisherman and a lake. He also wanted to add something special, which is why he added a shiny, scale rainbow fish.

Annie Liang submitted art pieces this year. She is currently attending California State University, Fullerton, and is a Mt. SAC alumnus as a Fine Arts major with a concentration in illustration. Liang’s first time submitting art was back in 2024 when she was attending Mt. SAC. Liang expresses that seeing her art is cool, as when she’s creating her art is the only thing she sees.

“It feels really heavy to me whenever I make it, but when I see it, I just paste it onto the wall like amongst every other person’s work. It feels like a small comparison, but not in a bad way. It feels like wow, it’s like every person also has their own story with their art too,” Liang said.

For “Re: Re,” Liang wanted to capture her passion for music, as it was something she started to get into recently. She expresses that as an Asian kid, she wasn’t introduced to music from a young age due to financial difficulties, so picking up music had come organically to her. Inspiration for her art came from a few of her favorite musicians and bands, namely Weezer and Sunset Roller Coaster, as she added their vinyls and recreated her room for her drawing.

Caesar Ayala is a graphic design major, and this is his third time having his art displayed. He mentioned that participating in these galleries is super fun, although he sometimes deals with imposter syndrome.

“It’s a little weird to invite people to come look at something you made, but at the end of the day, it is really rewarding,” Ayala said.

For one of Ayala’s art pieces, his inspiration comes from his passion for wrestling, and the piece not only talks about this passion, but also represents what it’s like to work towards your goals. You see a wrestler outside of the ring as he is looking up at a championship belt, visually representing someone who’s striving for their goals.

“RBG,” smaller in size, was one of his most challenging pieces to create, as he was only able to use three colors: red, green, and blue. And for his last piece, it is a graphic poster in which he was supposed to use an idea that could be political; in his case, he was debating whether pineapple belongs in pizza. But the caveat for his assignment was that he needed to use a designer and replicate their style. He was assigned Paul Rand, who is best knon for his abstract style in graphic design, while also using a photo that was taken from World War II.

This is Yami Rosas’ first time submitting for the gallery. Rosas is glad to see more photography representation, as bigger and more well-known galleries don’t really have much.

“I think it’s really cool, [photography] being more included now,” Rosas said.

Rosas wanted to capture how it feels to get married, having it as your main goal, while also commenting on how it can feel suffocating at some point. She wanted to create the vision everyone has in a completely different way, as something that is suffocating and being stuck, wanting to make the girl look supernatural and unrealistic.

For her second piece, “Welcome to Adulthood,” she wanted to capture what it’s like to be in your early 20s and how one feels, because you’re no longer a kid but you’re still not quite an adult yet. The model is standing at the entrance of a park trying to find a way to fit in, but since he’s wearing a suit, he feels and looks out of place, although he is still young.

Santiago Torres has been a part of the art program since the fall of 2023 and submitted art a while ago. This year, Torres submitted two art pieces, both being ceramics. His inspiration behind his artwork was his love for birds, especially ducks.

Torres’ artwork shows the shape of a duck following a bird pattern, with the duck’s butt, peak, and wings.

“I really like ducks. I have two pet ducks at home,” Torres said. He reflects when he was given a duck one day for his birthday, seeing how the ducks play freely even in the rain, playing with wet mud, similar to ceramics.

“They’re really fun to look at. They look so free and open like they’re having so much fun, especially in the rain and the mud and everything. And it ties in pretty well with clay because it gets all wet, kind of like mud,” Torres said.

This is Christian Ornelas’s first time submitting artwork for the Diana Berger gallery, although he’s been in a few museums before. Ornelas has been studying art since he was 14, and at Mt. SAC, he is currently in three programs: machining, welding and the ceramics program.

He claims that seeing his art at the Diana Berger Gallery is a huge opportunity.

“I think it’s an amazing opportunity, it’s awesome to be around a lot of creative people,” Ornelas said.

Ornelas inspiration behind his artwork is his pets and other dogs in the city; he’s been making chihuahuas since he was 15, showing the dogs being posed in different positions.

This is Valeria Correa, and this is her first time having her art displayed in the gallery. She claims that it feels surreal seeing her art displayed since it’s usually hanging around her house.

“It’s cool to see it somewhere else and for people to be looking at it,” Correa said.

Her inspiration behind the “Treehouse” was from her favorite comfort show, “Adventure Time.” It’s a huge part of her childhood, and she created this treehouse for her architectural box project.

“Instead of creating a box, I wanted to build something bigger, something more creative and architectural,” Correa said.

Her second piece “Seething”, has a narrative behind it. Correa wanted to show the idea of female and animal rage and how it all connects. She created a girl as the alligator and put the girl inside the alligator to show she’s the one within.

This is Jared Ray’s second time participating in the annual Student Show, as he was a part of last year’s.

“It feels really good, I mean, I love seeing my art with everybody else’s,” Ray said.

He expresses how much he enjoys hanging out with people and talking to other artists and professors about the art on display.

His first art piece is Chappell Roan; he was inspired by one of Roan’s performances, in which she wore a red dress. He was inspired by “Girl in a Red Turban with a Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer, so he recreated it by positioning Roan as the girl in the painting.

For his second piece, “Ritual,” you can view it in two ways: either the beginning or the end of the story. The girl in the picture is seen taking a bath as she’s spilling her wine.

Elijah Lujan was one of the lucky students to take ARTD 48A Letterpress Book Arts at Mt. SAC, and it is also his first time submitting and participating in the gallery. He said that it is very cool to see people get to experience seeing and appreciating the arts.

“I spent so much time on it alone, I didn’t really think it would get out there,” Lujan said.

His inspiration for “Through My Eyes” is memory and how it is fleeting, so he wanted to use this as a way to solidify these memories and preserve all memories he didn’t wanna forget.

“So there’s a lot of very personal images in there, but I am okay with people seeing them,” Lujan said. All photos in the book were screen printed with ink on paper as he sewed each page by hand, as well as the cover.

This is Karrie Peña’s second time submitting art. She’s a fine studio arts major, and Peña expresses how seeing her art makes her feel weird but excited.

“It makes me truly happy because I feel like I’m moving a step closer to how I want my future to be,” Peña said.

Peña’s inspiration behind it was her backstory and what she went through, Peña explains that she had dealt with a lot of grief, where she felt so many emotions, where she feels that it hits her heart first.

This is Daniel Nodal’s first time having his art displayed in the gallery. He claims it’s interesting to see people react to his art, as he finds it funny to see their reaction. His art contains a furry couple making out, although Nodal’s plans for his artwork were going to be more suggestive, but he decided to tone it down for the public.

“I was also anxious because I didn’t know what people were going to think. Because the original piece is a little more suggestive, I had to tone it down for I guess the classroom,” Nodal said.

Nodal’s inspiration for his artwork was a song named “Warned You” by Good Morning. Nodal said he took the lyrics out and implemented them into his painting.

Currently, this is Efrain Lemus’s first time participating in an art gallery, although he had sold art, painted a mural, and was a mural assistant before, he says it’s amazing to see other students’ work rather than just his.

“There are many layers to the meaning and title,” said Lemus.

One of his first inspirations for “Mi Corazoncito” is a song by Aventura. Lemus originally wanted to create two people dancing, as the main color of his painting is different shades of red and blue, similar to a human heart.

“The word in it, conquer, [means] to conquer the heart, and there’s a poem that goes along with the art piece that ties it into the meaning as well,” Lemus said.

Italia Garrad is a freshman at Mt. SAC, and this is her first time participating in the gallery. Garrad expresses how it is all new to her seeing her art being displayed, as she also likes seeing other people’s art being displayed.

“It’s a really unique environment to be a part of,” Garrad said.

“Bloodhound” is a conjoined piece that was part of a greater concept she had done for her senior year in high school.

“Spoon Fed,” which is also mixed media, explores different kinds of socially adopted phrases and how they could impact how one perceives reality. “Spoon Fed” was based on the phrase “here comes the plane” when feeding a baby, in a way to show how infants don’t really know how to exactly perceive reality yet.

Mason DeSiomone has been submitting art for the past two years. DeSiomone claims that seeing his art being hung at the gallery feels strange; it doesn’t belong here, but at the same time, it feels like an accomplishment.

“I put a lot of work into them, so it’s strange,” DeSiomone said.

DeSiomone explains that when he starts a new art piece, he starts with a new concept he wants to try out, and as he goes, he slowly adds more onto it. For “Natural Decay”, he wanted to create a cityscape. As it is a cityscape, there is some graffiti art within his work that has meaning behind it.

“For a lot of it, I asked a bunch of people what I should graffiti, as well as taking references from stuff that I like,” DeSiomone said.

This is Axl Espinoza’s first time submitting artwork at Mt. SAC. He claims it’s great to see his artwork being displayed at the gallery and enjoys seeing it being hung up with other artists’ work.

“It’s really interesting how so many people can make such different things,” Espinoza said. “It feels great to come and see my stuff in like a gallery.”

Espinoza created his artwork in a way to commercialize and monetize a romantic relationship. He added elements like how in many media romances feel transactional, especially around same sex relationships. Espinoza’s art shows female figures kissing as money is being shown, as a way to show the purpose instead of actual blood.

This year is Anahi Espiritu’s first time having her photography displayed in the gallery. Espiritu feels incredibly honored for being able to have her art displayed and allows the public to see. Espiritu is a deaf student; she wanted to show the world through the lens of someone who is deaf, which was her main inspiration for her photography.

“I wanted to show the world through the deaf eyes. And all the obstacles and frustration that occur being a deaf person, and it was my way of showing the non-deaf world what it feels like to be isolated,” Espiritu said.

She was able to express and show her experience of what it is like to be a deaf person and show all the pressure one has to go through. Espiritu expresses how difficult it is when trying to figure out a way to communicate with someone who’s non-deaf, so using art as a way to get people to understand the hardship she and people like her go through.

Skyler Brenner has been in a few galleries before Mt. SAC, but currently, this is his first time participating in the Diana Berger Art Gallery. Brenner expresses how awesome it is to see his artwork displayed with everyone else around him.

Brenner wanted to put his focus on industrialization and nature by putting two photos together. One photo shows gum on the ground, appearing very small, to represent the world, while the other shows the sun. Together, the images create his own interpretation of Yin and Yang.

“And I kind of also wanted to go for a balance, like in Yin-Yang type of stuff,” Brenner said.

By the end of the opening, the gallery had become more than just a space filled with paintings, ceramics and photography. Each artwork carried a personal story and growth, allowing artists to share pieces of themselves with the public. For many students, it was their first time seeing their own artwork being displayed on a gallery wall, turning many months of hard work and vulnerability into something they were able to share with the Mt. SAC community.