![\"img_7455\"](\"http:\/\/oldweb.taftcollege.edu\/tcwp\/cougaronline\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/IMG_7455.jpg\")
<\/a>The\u00a0 gallery was packed, bustling with artists, writers, and their supporters enjoying the exhibit. Many students and instructors also came from nearby classrooms to observe.<\/p><\/div>\n
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\u201cThe Flow of Creativity\u201d was the befitting name for the art exhibit at the Taft College Campus Art Gallery on Thursday, October 20th<\/sup> in which students displayed paintings alongside selected quotes from Charles Fishman\u2019s The Big Thirst. <\/em>The event was part of the annual \u201cOne Book, One Bakersfield, One Kern\u201d project initiated yearly by the Kern County Library network and California State University, Bakersfield.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Local art student presents her piece to observant judges. Students participating in the exhibit were scored by art judges for first, second, and third place prizes provided by facilitating faculty.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n Taft College\u2019s Basic Art 1600 students with instructor Deborah Rodenhauser worked interdepartmentally with Kamala Carlson and Danielle Kerr of the English department to create beautiful paintings of all different media based on selected quotes from Fishman\u2019s book.<\/em> Excerpts from the book, which is written in highly stylized prose, were paraphrased by the English students.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The staff responsible for “Quench: The Flow of Creativity” exhibit. From left Gaysha Smith,\u00a0Kamala Carlson, Deborah Rodenhauser, and Danielle Kerr<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n The English 1000 students in Carlson and Kerr\u2019s classes have been assigned to read the book, which is a collection of musings and essays on Fishman\u2019s philosophy about the disparaging and globally fragmented water distribution,\u00a0as well as data based on his travels and research of the different ways that water is used throughout the world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fishman also writes of how the global water supply is becoming–and has become<\/em> in many regions–irreversibly contaminated as a result of decades of pollution and the careless use of water as a source for waste.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rodenhauser remarked jokingly, pertaining to America\u2019s ever-intensifying water situation, \u201cIt\u2019s as if all of the drugs and pills we washed down the drain in the sixties\u00a0and seventies\u00a0are coming back to haunt us!\u201d According to Fishman\u2019s sobering data, she is not far from the reality of things.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fishman writes, \u201cThe new class of micropollutants we are beginning to hear about–infinitesimal, almost molecular traces of plastics, birth control pills, antidepressants–have literally been invisible even to chemists until very recently; you certainly can\u2019t tell if they\u2019re in your water by looking at it or drinking it. The impact of those micropollutants on our health, if any, may remain invisible for years–and may be almost impossible to predict or trace” (8).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Much of the book entails these kinds of warnings against the seemingly grim future of water and its function in our society along\u00a0with musings\u00a0from Fishman\u2019s travels to different sacred water supplies throughout the world. The artists that participated in \u201cThe Flow of Creativity\u201d were commissioned to create works that reflect his writings through their own creative lenses. Some of the artists were able to share their thoughts on their pieces, the water issues, and art in general.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cComic artists like Michael Turner, Bret Booth, and Jim Lee really motivated me when I was starting,\u201d says Nashel Tena of\u00a0her pursuits in visual arts, something she has been passionate about since she was a young child. Her piece is an iridescent, comic-style portrait of a young man inspired by Fishman\u2019s account of a boy that bemoaned a devastating\u00a0drought in his home country. Tena says that she was very moved by the fact that even though the boy in Fishman’s excerpt yearned\u00a0for free-flowing water; it has never come. Her piece was one of the few judges\u2019 selections\u00a0of the evening\u2019s exhibit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nashel Tena poses with her colorful piece that won a second-place prize among the paintings, sketches, and mixed media pieces of the exhibit.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf anyone is looking to pursue art, you have to build a passion for it and really want to improve yourself. Don\u2019t believe people that say ‘you have natural talent.’ You\u2019ve got to work for it. If you really want to work for it, then you can get there. If you want <\/em>to be good at something, you can be,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The image drawn by Samuel Rodriguez displays water molecules and an abstract mountain range. It conveyed sophisticated blending techniques and precise attention to detail. “Earth has the water trapped in what is considered a 4th<\/sup> state” Rodriguez says. “Under\u00a0extreme confinement, water molecules are able to move through energy barriers.”\u00a0Simply\u00a0put, water molecules that are normally trapped beneath the earth\u2019s surface also happen to be above the earth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>