Santa Rosa Junior College retired associate faculty of art, Alan Azhderian, closed his retirement and gallery show with reflections on his teaching style while having a few laughs with the audience, Dec. 4 in the Robert F. Agrella Gallery.
The gallery included two exhibitions: “Context/Content,” a show of Azhderian’s own work, and “Fellow Travelers,” a show of the art he’s collected throughout his career.
“Context/Content” opened a conversation about Azhderian’s life and the process of creating each piece. Azhderian showcased various art styles he has used throughout his career, including assemblage, collage, print making and drawings.
Alongside “Context/Content” was “Fellow Travelers,” which featured works from former students, faculty, mentors, and even his son, Nathan Azhderian.
SRJC art student Francesca Brown attended the gallery four times and welcomed Azhderian’s appearance for the closing ceremony.
“There’s so much to look at because it’s different in each room, and I love reading people’s stories. I’m an art major myself, so I love looking at art. Every piece is different and tells a different story, so I just find it amazing,” Brown said.
Azhderian urged attendees to take a look around and ask questions, and used humor to engage with the audience. Throughout his introductory speech, he tied SRJC into his art process with inquiries and communication, which he considers the baseline for learning.
“I asked my students on the first day of class, who in here is curious? And then I have to think, who here is not curious? What are you doing here if you’re not curious?” Azhderian said.
Multiple attendees asked about his assemblage, “Gestural Narratives,” made in 2011, where he used a hand painted A-frame sign on the side of the road to create 14 pieces of figurative elements fitting together.
“He told me he found these different colors on the way home and then he organized the different colors into the artworks. They look beautiful, just like a story. The people are dancing, singing, a man and a woman are dating, they are partying, it’s very vivid,” said attendee Ruth Owen.
The back of the gallery was filled with figure drawings and notes from Azhderian’s in-class demonstrations.
“When looking at the figure drawings and then his notes on some of these, talking about flow, and energy, you can see the weight, and you can feel the figure there,” said College of Marin multimedia and design instructor Derek Wilson.
According to Azhderian, the process of creating art is more important than the end result, and he relates it to how dancing and singing charges one’s body.
“When I would sing to myself, I’d get a vibration that would run through my body and ground me,” Azhderian said. “I don’t care about the outcome. I simply enjoy the engagement, the process of engagement. It eliminates a lot of superficial stuff.”
Azhderian mentioned how he turned his back on society after becoming a conscientious objector during the Vietnam war and refusing induction in the army, believing the US had betrayed its purpose.
“They never came after me, so I didn’t have to go to prison, but it was a huge effect, being under that stress for many years,” Azhderian said. “I realized that was a kind of a cultural thing for many people in the United States, and I figured, I don’t want to be with this culture. I’d rather be by myself and do what I want to do than to have to be in this stew.”
SRJC art faculty Hannah Skoonberg interpreted Azhderian’s art as a new set of rules he was creating for himself, and saw each piece as part of a half-finished game board.
“They’re like aesthetic puzzle boards where he’s made his own set of parameters and then is playing within those set of parameters,” Skoonberg said. “It’s just funny little objects collaging together, but they’re telling a story. And that sense of play and storytelling that Alan is doing, but in an aesthetic way.”
Azhderian currently has no plans to show more of his pieces in a gallery show, but will continue his art.
“I have to clean up the mess of my last 79 years of pathological acquisition. I can’t even open my head, everything’s too crowded, so I have to clean stuff up,” Azhderian said.
Sharon Azhderian Cox • Dec 13, 2025 at 2:52 pm
Ah, Alan is my brother. He has been drawing since he was five years old. Mother would sit between Alan and I and share pictures of the masters. He has always been an artist and has a beautiful singing voice also. I am inspired by his creativity, and out- side of the box renditions. I appreciate him in many ways and applaud and agree with the words he has shared at his retirement gallery showing.
Sharon Azhderian Cox