Artful lives honored

For five decades, Cal Lutheran University art professors Jerry Slattum and John Solem captivated their students: inspiring their artwork, shaping their careers and living in the creations of many protégés long after they left the classroom.

Slattum and Solem, who died within two months of each other in 2014, will be honored at an art show running June 4 to 28 at the Thousand Oaks Community Gallery at 2331-A Borchard Road in Newbury Park.

An artists reception will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Sun., June 19.

The show, hosted by former students Jerry Sawitz and Lea Lamp, who graduated in 1974, and David Paul DeMars, 1973, will feature about 300 oil paintings, pastels, watercolors, ceramics, bronzes, glass sculptures and other artwork by the professors and 60 of their former students, some of whom mailed their pieces from as far away as Minnesotaand Norway. Most of them are now art professionals.

“The response was overwhelming,” said Sawitz, “because of who they were, not necessarily just that they were very good classroom instructors. Both gentlemen were amazing human beings.”

The pair began teaching at Cal Lutheran College in the 1960s and fostered close relationships with their students at the small, tight-knit school while building their careers as renowned artists.

Their guidance came at a crucial time for Sawitz, who was having a tough time after suffering an injury that ended his collegiate career in football and track. He was walking on campus late one night, contemplating what to do next, when he saw a light in Slattum’s office.

“I walked in and talked to him about this,” Sawitz said, “and he listened, and he just looked at me and said, ‘Take all the energy that you have been putting into athletics and direct it into your art career.’

“It really helped me at that time to think that it wasn’t the ending of something but the beginning of something different.”

The advice paid off for Sawitz, who went on to teach art at Thousand Oaks High School for 35 years. He’s a full-time artist now and teaches one class a week at Century Academy.

Slattum, who retired from CLU in 2004, was outgoing and warmhearted and wore outrageous neckties, Sawitz said. He was voted Professor of the Year four times and led student tours through Europe and Central and South America.

“Being able to see the world and experience people is what I find exciting,” Slattum told the Acorn in a 2012 interview. “I’m very young in my attitude toward life. That’s what’s sustained me.”

His art also sustained him. Both Slattum and Solem won numerous awards for their work. In addition to paintings and ceramics, Solem, who retired from CLU in 1996, undertook the laborious art of viscosity etchings.

Solem taught students to see beauty in everything, saying, “It’s not necessarily so that beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” Lamp said. “(Slattum and Solem) would get you thinking on all these deep, philosophical questions.”

Sawitz and Solem were close friends. They’d go to dinner and converse about art and books. Solem was well-read and could speak intelligently about any subject, Sawitz said.

In the 1980s, the student became the teacher when Sawitz gave Solem instruction in ceramics while continuing to receive painting lessons from him. 

“He was always wanting to connect with the students as human beings, as people, and not just as artists,” said Solem’s widow, Gloria. “He was always interested in their life and not just their work.”

Among the artwork displayed at the show will be Solem’s final three paintings, the last finished in June 2014, five months before his death. One painting completed in 2010, titled “Grouse Lake Pine,” took him 2 ½ years to finish.

“We are very honored that the students want to put together a show like this and honor these two gentlemen,” said Gloria Solem, who will visit the exhibit along with Slattum’s widow, BJ. “We know what great people they were, and now the students are indicating to us that they know what great teachers they were also.”

The show’s reception on Father’s 

Day is fitting because “they were like fathers to us,” Lamp said. “We moved out of the arena of student-teacher and became family.”

Sawitz took important lessons from both Slattum and Solem.

“From Jerry I learned about making contact with a student, listening to them and realizing that it’s not just about their art, it’s about them,” he said. “And from John, I learned about the technique of art. . . . When you learn the rules it allows you the freedom to express yourself.”

The show dedicated to them will include a portrait of Slattum painted by DeMars and one of Solem by Sawitz, who captured the thoughtful look on the professor’s face when he was evaluating a student’s art.

“I had to show it to Gloria to get her approval, and it was an emotional time for both of us, simply because I was painting John in a medium that he taught me,” Sawitz said.

--- Published in the Thousand Oaks Acorn on May 26, 2016