“When I first heard of the ‘Hope’ project, for some reason I thought of a poem that I wrote a couple years ago,” said WNMU fine art and graphic design student Felix S. Gutierrez. “I took heavy inspiration from the poem, integrating its ideas in my ceramic piece ‘Many Pathways.’”
The poem was also his muse for in the digital art piece “New Beginning,” which depicts a journey to find a brighter day through spirituality. “But I invite the viewer to interpret what type of journey that the people are going through,” Felix said. “The art piece displays how people have the capacity to help one another, no matter how risky it may be to find the right path. ’New Beginning’ reflects the spirituality experienced through people coming together and helping one another for a greater cause.”
The original poem by Felix S. Gutierrez:
There is a path placed at our feet we do not know what lies ahead but we bear the scars from what we had led. As we look forward, we see the fallen on the path they have chosen, shall we pass, or shall we go pick them up and raise them up from the depths they have fallen. As we go with the second option, we have no fear with the action we have chosen as we amble together, they give thanks for what we have done for them. As we proceed on the path the road that we walk is cracked but we know the road that we seek is near. As we look forward the path does not look clear, but we shall persevere and have no fear.
“When I’m not doing classwork or working at WNMU as a student worker in the ceramic studio, I’m either running or biking or working on a new art project,” Felix said. “My favorite medium is oil painting, but most of the time I don’t have time to paint; therefore, I work with quicker types of media: digital art, pencils or markers.”
Work by Felix and other degree-seeking and dual enrolled #WNMU students will make up the “Hope” exhibition on Wednesday, January 19, in the Fellowship Hall at the First United Methodist Church.