{"id":2806,"date":"2025-12-09T14:59:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T20:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/?p=2806"},"modified":"2025-12-09T14:59:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T20:59:08","slug":"the-fads-building-offers-a-blank-canvas-for-artists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/2025\/12\/09\/the-fads-building-offers-a-blank-canvas-for-artists\/","title":{"rendered":"The FADS Building Offers A Blank Canvas For Artists"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Photo by: Jasmine Mills)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cTo me, it’s all one piece,\u201d Garry tells me. \u201cThere is no beginning, and there is no end\u201d.<\/p>\n

Garry Noland is not a student here at JCCC, but an artist in the FADS (Fine Arts and Design Studios) building on campus. The Unorganized Territory <\/i>spills across its white walls in deep reds, greens, and electric purples and blues. Every piece has a story to tell.<\/p>\n

Just behind the Billington Library, the FADS building stands bright and white like a giant block of winter snow. Inside, the clean walls and open space act as a blank canvas waiting for artists to breathe life into them. That is exactly what the building is designed for\u2013creativity, collaboration and connection across every possible art form.<\/p>\n

Professor Mark Cowardin, who oversees the exhibitions, is a friendly face who you\u2019ll often find in and out of classes, and helps Noland as he goes along.<\/p>\n

At 72, Noland has been creating art since his mid-20s. He credits his love for materials and making things to the women in his family: a grandmother who quilted, and another who worked with textiles long before anyone thought to call her an \u201cartist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody described anybody like that back then,\u201d he says. \u201cNow we\u2019d call it something elite. But it was just their life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noland isn\u2019t afraid to let his art walk into harder territory, either. Spending time in the Midwest, he says, can sometimes insulate people from issues that feel more intense in coastal cities like LA\u2014cramped living, extremes of wealth, the constant closeness of millions of people. His pieces even touch on racism, classism, economic inequality and fascism woven into the American landscape. One of his works explicitly addresses the reduction of rights for everyday people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s beautiful and painful, and it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my life,\u201d Noland says. For him, it\u2019s his responsibility to share this with the public.<\/p>\n

Some of his works reach back years\u2014one piece was created using 100 copies of National Geographic<\/i>, reassembled into a collage poem.<\/p>\n

That is what makes The Unorganized Territory<\/i> so touching. It\u2019s someone\u2019s lifetime of stories layered on top of each other until they become something new.<\/p>\n

If you are interested in seeing Noland\u2019s work, you can visit his exhibition in the FADS building or his Instagram<\/a> page, @GarryNol.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTo me, it’s all one piece,\u201d Garry tells me. \u201cThere is no beginning, and there is no end\u201d.
\nGarry Noland is not a student here at JCCC, but an artist in the FADS building on campus. The Unorganized Territory spills across its white walls in deep reds, greens, and electric purples and blues. Every piece has a story to tell.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":2807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[318],"class_list":["post-2806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Saul Epstein","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/sepstein\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/files\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-09-145842.jpg","coauthors":[{"link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/eleyna-vazquez\/","display_name":"Eleyna Vazquez"}],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Life<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Life<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 9 months ago","modified":"Updated 9 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on December 9, 2025","modified":"Updated on December 9, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on December 9, 2025 2:59 pm","modified":"Updated on December 9, 2025 2:59 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":318,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"eleyna-vazquez","display_name":"Eleyna Vazquez","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/files\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-09-145842.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2808,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2806\/revisions\/2808"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2806"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}