Upon graduating from high school and announcing my plans to study art, a close friend bound for pre-med mock-reassured me: "Don't worry, Beck, you can live in my basement."

As important as art is to most people - and as much as it enhances our culture and individual lives - art majors aren't always taken seriously, and the pursuit of higher education in the arts is still widely thought to be sorta foolish. Precarious as it may be financially, it's not all basement-surfing and café-dwelling all of the time. In a group exhibit that recently closed after a brief two-week run, 16 art alumni of Nazareth College showed Rochester what they've been up to since graduation.

The invitational alumni show was held at Nazareth's year-old Colacino gallery, an elegant little spot that opened last February. Each artist shared one to three pieces, the sum of which resulted in a diverse range of styles and media, subject matter, and artistic concerns.

Moving through the space, viewers could gain a taste of traditional techniques, as in Alan Pascuzzi's "St. Jerome in the Desert," an oil-on-panel piece that, in all its chiaroscuro and gentle gesture, evokes the Italian Renaissance. Another traditional medium, but with modern subject matter, was found in Dale Klein's litho, collagraph, and aquatint prints. In their balance of form and tone, and with surprising depth, the images transform ordinary scenes of gas stations and steel mills into something of quiet and stark beauty.

Contrasting with these older media and styles were the very modern works of Jennelle Hart, née Foley, who creates cartoonishly morbid imagery with vibrant color, and the whimsical, candy-colored, mixed-media abstracts of Paul Waida (also the head tennis coach at Naz). More dramatic color experiments could be found in Darren Brennessel's acrylic paintings of local landmarks, with shimmering energy that transforms seemingly mundane Rochester sites (a famous bridge overpass, a Monroe Avenue church) into glimpses of magical little worlds.

Amid all of this vibrating color, quieter pieces steadily held their own. Flanking and across from Waida's chaotic "I Scream for Ice Scream" were three complicated graphite drawings by Penny Nasalaris. These impressive endeavors are part anatomical study, part landscape, and simultaneously suggest surrealist paranoic-vision scenes and Dr. Seuss' hybrid characters. Even the phonetically mischievous titles, as in "A Fox Stole, Wright Bee-Four Hour Ice," mirror the broken playground tone of the pieces.

Quieter still were Adrienne Stiles' two lovely oil on panel paintings, meditative in their wave and spiral patterns and sacred undertones. Situated close by were Sara Lalik's garden themed, delicate jewelry pieces. Wearable art was also represented by Loli Ong's stunning silver, pearl, and stone necklace. The inspiration for the flora theme of the metalwork seems to arise from the fern-like pattern nature traced across the stone's surface.

Other 3-D works in the exhibit included two beautiful wood-fired clay vessels by Michael Carroll, and Michael Thompson's steel-and-glass tables, breathtaking in their solid and fragile dual nature. Both "Epic," a tall and narrow piece, and its squat counterpart, "Whirlwind," possess a kinetic aspect in their frozen, precarious balance, as if gargoyles that might twitch to life in just the corner of your vision.

Nazareth helps to shape artists who focus on beauty in the world - as was shown in Elena Dubas' stunning digital photos taken in exotic India - and also those who examine existence introspectively, as represented by Tom Galambos' two self-portraits. These life-sized paintings were positioned on opposite walls from one another, and viewers in that space found themselves inadvertently caught in the middle of a seeming face-off between the twin intense stares. Also in the personal vein of art were Sarah Egan's black and white photographs of a very tiny baby and her photo-real and grayscale acrylic painting of a racy feminine form, which due to the cropping and focus on light and shadow, skillfully becomes almost abstract.

Less formal than the other presentations were Jim Hill's geometric graphic designs. His six drawings were e-mailed and then printed from an HP 6122 and adhered to the wall with blue artist tape, which was reminiscent of critique days in the studios. To be honest, I raised an eyebrow at this grouping, and wondered if these were the artist's finished works or examples of what he is busy creating. But this isn't the only artist whose work was represented in computer reproduction.

The most widely known work of a Naz art grad is arguably that of illustrator and 1983 graduate Jamie Franki, and you can have it for the paltry price of 5 cents. That is, if you can find one. Franki designed the much-coveted 2005 American bison nickel. Present at the show were large-scale reproductions of the buffalo coin, as well as the (gasp!) forward-facing Jefferson nickel of 2006, the medallion he created for Baltimore featuring the city's native Edgar Allan Poe, and the Coaching Medallion he designed for the U.S. Olympics. Franki included some rather humorous, subversive touches in his work for the U.S. Mint.

This show spoke well of the school's ability to attract a diverse crowd of artists, and to foster that diversity while they are in attendance. Each individual represented found and shared their artistic voice, expressing the varying meanings of "artist" and functions of art in the world. Some of the grads have eked out a niche in the professional art world, while others have maintained their craft as a free-time passion, but we should applaud everyone for keeping it active despite the bustle of the "real" world. 

What Are They Doing Now?

Margaret Colacino Gallery

Nazareth College Arts Center

389-2488 | www.naz.edu