Biola alumnus, Travis Rasmussen admires the the work of featuring artists and Biola Alumni, Julian Francolino, Jenna Keefe, and Ashleigh Allard. Their work was exhibited on September 9, 2011 at this month’s Art Lounge, presented by the Art League at Biola. | Tyler Otte/THE CHIMES

On Friday, Sept. 9 the Biola Student Art League held its kick-off event, the Art Lounge, in the painting studio McNally 91. Music blared throughout the studio, and many snapped pictures at the photo booth, talking with new and old friends and surveying the featured art from two Biola alumni’s past senior shows.

Show features Biola Alumni

Ashleigh Allard, the Art Department’s secretary and recent graduate, had a couple of pieces and a video installation featured. While Julian Francolino, who graduated last spring, was showing his collection of paintings “Hotel Continental.” Francolino describes his paintings as “provisional reactions” to photos set in Romania — both from his family’s 15 years there and from the Urban Outfitters fall 2010 catalog.

The Biola Student Art League has been around for nearly 20 years and was established by Professor Dan Callis when he was a student. The League was created with the intention to foster an environment for artists and creative types to hang out. It’s a way for art majors to get connected with one another and with other art-minded people, according to Austin Ranson, the league’s president.

Connecting artists in the L.A area

The event was put together primarily by the league’s vice president, Samantha Leaden with help from Ranson and “captain”Jordan Avila, all of whom are seniors at Biola.

“We kind of decided that we were going to take our league to another level this year for there to be more of a creative community on campus,” Ranson said. “We’d like to see a lot more cooperation between the creative majors. It just seems like art and film and writers should all be more integrated, so this is potentially a platform for that.”

Another goal of the Art League is for students to get connected with other artists in Los Angeles while exploring the creative culture of the city.

“We’d love to get out to L.A. once a month,” Leaden said. “I would love to get a group together to go to flea markets. There’s also some really strange art stuff that only happens once a year and we would love to be a part of that because not all of us are going to be in L.A. when we get out of here, so we’d love to take advantage of it while we got it.”

While exploring the art community in Los Angeles, members of the Art League will also be able to begin networking with other artists.

“For those of us who will be in L.A., it’s good to get connected while we can with this vehicle of Art League,” Ranson said.

The Art League hopes to foster community through monthly meetings, art sales, trips to Los Angeles and a retreat. For those who are interested in joining or would like more information, the Art League has created a Facebook page and will be at Clubs Fair this Tuesday and Wednesday.