Tool Crib, a gallery of artwork from dedicated staff members, is now available at Rio Hondo College. The theme of the gallery is of an actual “tool crib;” a room where all the tools are stored or equipment is placed.

Robert Miller, Art Gallery Director and Arts and Cultural Programs Associate Professor of Ceramics, stated that he has been thinking about doing a gallery like this for a couple of years. Miller has been in charge of the ceramic department for eight years and running the art gallery for six. The gallery features eight different artists that are staff members here at Rio, who also teach at various prestigious schools throughout Southern California. Miller made the gallery with a small number of pieces on display because he didn’t want the gallery to feel overwhelmed.

On display, the gallery had a wide variety of exhibits to wander off into. Desktop, done by Michael Pierzynski, captures a perfect storm of a workalcoholics desk in our age. The color scheme and layout appeals to anyone who has had to suffer during long nights from the crime of passion of honing a craft.

Adam Teraoka turned an ordinary football helmet into nothing short of an awestricking, one of kind, football helmet with a grill that looks like something out of a Mad Max movie. The metal grill wrapped around the helmet, sprawled out onto both sides of it and draped downwards, casually and freely like an elongated beard. The metal reached all the way down to the user’s chest, protecting them from any incoming force.

Artist David Isono had on display four different arresting pieces, each portraying a different subject. Chair Jar, reminded me of  the chair we all saw growing up as a kid. The same old, used chair that we all saw our grandparents sit down on the front porch with. It’s material evoked a wise soul feeling, humbling you as you stare at the simple yet more complex chair on top of the piece. Isono’s Devil’s Shepard, catches you with its conflicting themes. Its color brings you into the lost moment in time of a grayed european cathedral. The top of the piece shows a different viewpoint to the devil, kneeling and showing a moment of humility caring for the lamb in its clutches.

Monday, October 18, was the first day the gallery opened up at Rio.

“Opening night was great. We had over 100 people at the show last night,” said Arts and Cultural Program’s Cultural Events Assistant, Rosa Bustamante. Miller expressed how the gallery gives students more exposure to what it’s like to have a career in the Arts.

“It was exciting to see students ask the artists so many questions on the technicalities on how the artists accomplished their work. We are not just a gallery, we are also a teaching gallery,” Miller stated when asked about opening day. The gallery opened on October 18, and will stay open until November 18.