Il-LUNA-nate

9 November 2011Cherrie K

Glowing in a cosy corner of the Old Academic Building are the Art Studios of Brentwood. With wide windows and a waterfront view, these studios are a sanctuary for restless artistic fingers – but it’s not just the light spilling through the windows which illuminates these soothing rooms.

The new radiance to grace these studios –and Brentwood’s brilliant faculty— is Mr. John Luna. For the lovers of hard fact, Mr. Luna has taught Art, Art Criticism, and Art History, assisted in the development of the Vancouver Island School of Art, and has worked at the University of Victoria. He was recently featured in Focus Magazine; he is well-known in Victoria’s artistic community. Now, he cycles swiftly into Brentwood each morning to teach Foundation Art, Studio Art, and Art History.

An intricate blend of art and intellect, Mr. Luna has delved into almost everything in the artistic sphere –painting, sculpting, printmaking, installations, just to name a few – and has also studied art history and written art criticism (as well as dabbling in poetry). He is as knowledgeable as he is inspiring: a conversation with him usually concludes with a list of about five names of different artists, works, or intriguing literature he has recommended, scribbled earnestly down on a piece of paper. The answer to a simple question can twine into a complex digression with him furrowing his brow while pondering the purpose of art, or art culture. This is a teacher who is going to remember what each of his students said yesterday, and continue those conversations the next day. Mr. Luna does not waste words; his conversations are meaningful.

And so is his own work. Though he admits that as an artist he is usually “very indecisive”, his work is rich in texture and allows room for elaborate interpretation. It is clear that art, to Mr. Luna, is not merely a subject: it is a lifestyle rather than a separate entity— or, as he eloquently muses, a physical continuum. He is not surrounded by art, he is absorbed by it – art is a compulsion. Whether examining the evolution of art in Art History, or witnessing the development of a student’s germ of an idea flourish into a fleshed out piece in Studio Art, this particular attraction to the continuous evolution, motion, and fluctuation of things was part of the reason for his decision to come to Brentwood.

Mr. Luna already finds teaching at Brentwood to be a rewarding way of life rather than ‘just a job’, and he values the sense of community that comes with it. He also –ironically—appreciates the grounded stability of Brentwood. Having just moved into a new home in the area, his family of three children and his wife are also, unsurprisingly, as artistic as he is.

As a man who leans on his instincts and thrives in the refreshing air of change, Mr. Luna prefers not to languidly sink into habits or routines. He perceives the phases of his life as projects: if that is so, then we hope that Brentwood will be Mr. Luna’s longest project yet. Intense, deep, and unassuming, Mr. Luna is the light that the studios –and this cohort of Brentwood’s art students – have been waiting for.

Where Students Choose To Be