Photographer and photo video senior Zach Kanter excitedly points to his work displayed on glossy page nine of .RAW Journal, a quarterly publication created by art and design majors to showcase the photography, designs, sculptures and videos produced by students in the department.
The journal’s “Create to relate” motto on their website highlights using different mediums like photography, design, studio art and others to “inspire, inform and incorporate ideas old and new in an image-saturated world.”
Despite having some printing problems that set back co-editor-in-chiefs and photo video seniors Sarai Devi Dasi and Vivian Jameson, the 41-page journal was celebrated with a release party last Friday at Dexter Donut.
“A lot of what we do is letting the art speak for itself,” Jameson said. “Presenting how it wants to be presented and just have a place to share it.”
32 artists came forward to submit their work for .RAW Journal’s fall issue and were chosen by the journal’s editorial board to have their art displayed. In Kanter’s case, his photography consisted of a trip to San Francisco’s de Young Museum.
“It’s just capturing moments of people intertwined with shadows. I create best when I have a chance to sit and observe somewhere and wait for an idea to come to me in a space,” Kanter said. “I just kind of shoot whatever comes to me, toss it their way and see what happens.”
According to Devi Dasi, .RAW has recently received more graphic design work, studio artwork and video entries. Two video entries grace .RAW’s pages for this issue, the first being titled “dreamscape_01” by Ryden Secor and “Across the Universe A.I. Version” by Devi Dasi. Both videos used AI as part of their creation and QR codes match the image of the videos and lead to their Vimeo page to view the full product.
“We understand it’s a magazine, you know, people don’t really think of video, but [with] an online version it’s nice to showcase,” Devi Dasi said.
.RAW Journal is comprised of an editorial board, a design team, social media marketing, direct University Graphic Systems communications and a party planning team. The party planning team works on the release parties for every issue and while the one in Fall quarter took place at the Dexter Donut, the .Raw Journal has previously thrown release parties at Linnaea’s Cafe in Downtown SLO.
Art and design sophomore Maky Bautista was a part of the party planning committee and took part in the process of getting everything necessary to hold the release part.
“We started planning where we wanted the location and how can we make this event more accessible to people within our major –what better place than the Dexter Donut?” Bautista said.
.RAW Journal is currently accepting submissions for their winter issue and studio art class concentration junior Chanti Medina plans to submit her medium of choice and takes inspiration from her hometown’s cultures.
“Oil mixed media is what I’m into right now. I come from a Mexican background and I live in Santa Maria so gang-culture and since my town is a very religious community, I like to express those things into my artwork,” Medina said. “I really think students are doing a really good job; their art is just as good as art you can see in a gallery.”
Correction: This article has been updated on Feb. 21 2:03 p.m. to correct a name error.