ALEXIS SEBRING
Life Assistant

Take a look at Pepperdine’s student body, and most will find that swimmers, singers, dancers, golfers and runners sprinkle campus. Everybody on campus has at least one unique thing about them that helps separate them from one other.

Individuality is vital, whether it be through personality, athletic ability or artistic talents. A deep look into the many students at Pepperdine results in the finding of hidden treasures like sophomore Brian Guterding, a talented art major.

It takes a certain kind of person to create art in a way that everybody can appreciate it. This person must be creative, open-minded, talented and experienced. Of course, anybody can get to this point, but it is obvious that Guterding has already arrived. With his many paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures he has proved that he is capable of truly amazing things.Coming all the way from busy New York to cozy Malibu, Guterding has much experience in all different kinds of art. He was interested in it even while attending high school and hopes to continue this hobby for years to come.

He has taken several art classes at Pepperdine, incluing 3-D Design, Photography and Drawing, and has become most interested in sculpting. Guterding can take anybody, including those without the slightest understanding of art, into the depths of its beauty.

By taking heed of his knowledge on this subject, Guterding can help us plunge into the many colors of an artistic world.

What is your favorite kind of art?

“Since I came to college it’s actually sculpture. I never had the materials to do it and never went out and bought clay or plaster. You start off with drawing, and painting if you can.”

Why is it your favorite?

“I like walking around and looking at it and being able to add on as much as you can. I’ve been working with a lot of abstract human forms and something grabbed me from it. There’s something beautiful about it.

One class we actually got a slab of clay and we turned off the lights for three hours and just sculpted around and we’d make three human forms: mother, father, daughter or son, just three. You don’t really need the lights on you, can just feel around and kind of think about it in your mind. It’s more of a feeling than actually visual, that’s why I think I like sculpture more.”

Who is your favorite artist?

“It’s hard to pick a favorite artist, but I used to be really influenced by De Kooning and Jackson Pollock. But these days I’m having trouble focusing on one artist and one style. De Kooning is more of an abstract, expressionism type. And for me, personally, it has more feeling in it instead of just copying what you see. And it really digs into the person’s mind, almost like fiction to a person. Just trying to make reality what they think. “

Would you sell your artwork?

“I’ve done it once. I would like to, it is kind of nice getting money for it, but you get sort of an attachment to it. You run out of space, especially with canvases and especially with sculptures. I can’t bring those anywhere. All the work I’ve done has stayed at Pepperdine. I can’t take it home, so I take a picture of it. I sold one. I did this Asian landscape in high school and one of the teachers wanted to buy it so I sold it for $75. It was kind of nice – it’s a good feeling when people want your art and people enjoy it, but at the same time I wish I had that still.”

How do your emotions inspire you to create art?

“Your mood really helps you. You can tell if you’re happy when you’re painting, or sad, or bored. You can see how your mood changes while you are painting or sculpting or anything. It starts with little strokes or just happy and random outbursts of color, or anything really. I think imitation is a great thing to work off of. It’s basically influence, just copying a tree or copying a bench or anything, and form it into a human figure or anything you want.”

The Pepperdine community can see some of Brian’s sculptures in the display case in front of room 118 in the CAC.

01-17-2008