All in the medium

The ever-tumultuous art scene is driven by the innate artistic need to create something new and original. With so many artists constantly pushing artistic techniques, styles and subjects to their limits, it’s not surprising the contemporary art landscape is so diverse.

When Huntington Beach artist Mary Dessert (rhymes with midair) starts a piece, she’s never quite sure where it may take her. All she knows is that a shape will emerge.

“For me it’s an exploration” Dessert says. “It’s exciting for me to put something together where I don’t quite know where it’s going.”

Dessert paints on board and uses Dremel tools, wood burners and belt sanders to stylize her work.

Anna Friesen takes a different approach to her work. She takes photographs and distorts and changes them. The photos are mounted on paper colored with soot.

The Surf City artist touches the flame from candles to the paper to create designs in the carbon markings left behind. This gives the onlooker a different sense of reality, Friesen says.

Robert Jacka’s philosophy is one man’s trash is another man’s art. The San Bernardino sculptor takes old and broken items he finds at yard sales and thrown out on the street, and recycles them into artwork.

“When things outlive their original use, that’s when I start to see them as a bit of an art piece,” Jacka says.

He compiles them into odd sculpture assortments that sometimes even move.

With such vastly different styles of art, what do these artists have in common? They are a few of the more than 200 artists whose work is part of the Huntington Beach Art Center’s yearly Centered on the Center exhibition.

The exhibition is an annual nonjuried, open-call show. This year there are 365 pieces by 206 artists, most of whom are local to Orange County. With so much work, there are vastly different techniques and mediums to explore.

There is a section for figures, abstracts, photography, landscapes and mixed media. There is video work and sculpture, collages and realistic sketches.

“It shows people aren’t just sitting home watching TV,” gallery curator Darlene DeAngelo says. “They’re creating.”

The show packs the works on the walls of the center and creates an intriguing cross section of what today’s artists are doing. It’s part of the art center’s ultimate goal — to bring Huntington Beach quality art.

“For a bedroom community like Huntington Beach, they don’t have to leave town to see good art,” art center Director Kate Hoffman says.

And the artists appreciate it too. Since it’s an open call show, anyone from art students to hobbyists to professional artists can see their work on display.

“What this does is provide people of different levels of professionalism a place for their work,” says Jacka, who also teaches a sculpture class at the center. “It’s kind of a springboard for people in the community to get their stuff out.”

Dessert’s inclusion in the open-call show in a previous year led to her eventually being selected for a group show at the center.

“The Art Center is such a nice space and it makes such a clear presentation of your work,” Dessert says. “It gave me the opportunity to put my art in front of people to let them know what my work is about.”

There will be an artist’s reception at the center Friday, and it’s a party the artists say is one not to miss.

Since there will likely be more than 1,000 people there to check out the art, it gives someone new to the gallery experience something easy to cut their teeth on.

“If you’re a novice gallery goer, no one will single you out as a newcomer,” Friesen says.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Centered on the Center exhibition.

WHERE: Huntington Beach Art Center, 538 Main St.

WHEN: Friday through Feb. 17; Artist’s reception is 6 to 9 p.m. Friday.

COST: Free

INFORMATION: Visit www.surfcity-hb.org/ Visitors/Art_Center or call (714) 374-1650.