The grand opening of the MAC Gallery in September 2012 featured the exhibition "Transitions" by renowned artist and WVC graduate Joe Feddersen.

Feddersen was a student at WVC during the 1970s, studying printmaking with Robert Graves in the ascendant art department. After receiving degrees from the University of Washington and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he taught for two decades at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, exhibiting his work in major museums and galleries throughout the world. He recently retired from Evergreen and returned to his hometown of Omak, where he continues to ambitiously produce and exhibit work.

"Transitions" included wall-hung pieces utilizing a variety of printmaking techniques, as well as sculptural vessels of blown glass, all mixing elements that blur the lines between Feddersen's traditional culture and contemporary imagery. The exhibition features a six-foot by 12-foot, multi-paneled print piece titled "Okanogan 1," and delicate, new mirrored glass works.

Artist Statement:

In my most recent work, I am attempting to put down on paper a story of my life, an introspective recognition of SELF, myself. I use Prismacolor colored pencil and a smooth black acid-free paper as the tools to express this idea. I look for balance in the pieces, just as I struggle for balance in myself and in my life. I use a few familiar images as symbols, but what these symbols represent can change from one drawing to the next. There are, however, some common themes, having to do in some way with my desire for a pragmatic approach to my life. Some prevalent themes found in the work are life and death, spirituality, reality vs. non-reality, and memories that have in some ways dissolved or changed beyond accurate recollection.

Color plays a significant role in the life of my work. I love the intensity and the luminosity of colors. I also love to play with light and shadow, working together to represent something tangible, reachable, yet indefinable. The play of pattern is another commonly used element in my work. Pattern has a language and a structure that I feel helps to carry my voice and define the content of the drawings.

Majka Sadel's exhibit includes ink and mixed media works on paper.

Majka currently teaches Art History and Art Appreciation courses at Wenatchee Valley College. She is an active, practicing studio artist with a master's in fine arts from painting, and she has classical academic art training from Poland, where she was born and raised.

Majka uses ink and non-traditional media to explore a variety of expressive and lyrical responses to her potted companions.

WVC art students Niki Stewart and Karen Dawn Dean filled the MAC Gallery with paintings, installation, and performance. Collectively, their works showed evidence of transformation: from figuration to abstraction, from craft to fine art, and from object to experience.

The genesis of the exhibition arose when the artists found themselves together in an Advanced Painting class and conceived of a show that challenged themselves and a lifetime of their own artistic conventions. This work provides examples of the kind of mature exploration occurring in WVC's advanced art classes.