by Krystal Paco

Guam - It's a show you only get to catch once every two years as the Isla Center for the Arts features the University of Guam fine arts faculty.

It's a show you don't want to miss as recent works created by University of Guam faculty members are up on display at the Isla Center for the Arts.

UOG art professor Ric Castro said, "This is one of those few kept best secrets on island if you go around the island today its very difficult to find gallery venues in which to see this type of diversity of artwork and its free. It's going to be up for quite a while and although Isla's mission is to primarily show work from off island and abroad, this is one of the few cases where you get to see local talent."

Aside from Castro, local talents include full-time professors Lewis Rifkowitz and Jose Babauta as well as adjunct professors Victor Consaga, Lindsay Kane, and Perry Perez, all of whom represent an array of media from ceramic vessels and sculptures to acrylic paintings, prints and photographs.

Castro, who teaches courses in painting, printmaking, design, and illustration, has over a dozen pieces up for viewing all inspired by hikes he's taken around the island.

His interpretation of lush green landscapes easily take viewers to familiar hiking trails throughout the island as well as unfamiliar ones, saying, "These are basically hidden treasures or secret gardens around the island. One of my goals for this body of work was really to give exposure to those places. A lot of these areas, when I was there taking the pictures, you could faintly hear traffic in the background which goes to show that a lot of these hidden places are right under our noses."

And for the first time ever, the biennial show features a piece by an emeritus professor. After 30 years of teaching in the UOG fine arts program, Robert Sajnovsky retired in 2002. With his singular work on display, Sajnovsky asks viewers to take the provided pencil and paper to tell him what they see when they view his art. "What do you see? Basically it's an image that most people will see in one particular way but there are other things going on in this piece also and I want to see how closely people look at artworks. the whole idea about art is that one should not look at art the way you look out your window," he said.

The exhibit runs through February 7 at the Isla Center for the Arts on Dean's Circle in Mangilao. The exhibit is open to the public, free of charge and open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For more information, call the Isla Center at 735-2965.