By Nick Stern, Senior Reporter |Photo courtesy of Rachel Popowcer
During the month of March, a student art silent auction at Rebel Donut on 2435 Wyoming Blvd NE was all for a great cause, and Art Instructor, Rachel Popowcer said that students had noble and selfless reasons for donating all proceeds to children in need.
The auction was meant to serve as a fundraiser in which every penny earned is donated to the University of New Mexico Children’s Hospital, which is a charity that was chosen by the students in Popowcer’s Drawing II class, who also produced all the pieces on sale, she said.
“All the money goes to the UNM Children’s Hospital. I just asked them who they wanted to benefit and that is what they decided. The Children’s Hospital is always a good thing to give money to, I think,” she said.
The auction is at the Rebel Donut’s Wyoming location, and should last until the end of the first or second week of April, she said.
For more information, people can call 293-0553 or go facebook. com/RebelDonut.
Every piece of art that was hung at the auction was strictly depicting donuts, and all the donuts that were modeled for the student artists were donated by Rebel Donut and eaten by the students afterwards, she said.
Anyone who is interested in bidding on any of the donut art can do so for a minimum of $5, and does not have to be a part of the CNM community, she said.
“It is awesome! They make really good donut art and the minimum bid for each piece is $5, so if someone needs art for their kitchen or their house it is really cool,” Popowcer said.
The auction did not consist of any opening premiere so there was no big event held at Rebel Donut with crowds of people walking around and looking at art, but every customer who has gone for donuts since the hanging has gotten a chance to shop for donut art to go with their donut food, she said.
Popowcer said that there were between 12 and 15 students from her class who contributed to the auction gallery and between 20 and 25 different pieces of art that were done in a variety of different mediums like graphic pencil, colored pencil, paint, and chalk pastel, she said.
Even though the auction was put on to benefit the Children’s Hospital, Popowcer said the experience itself benefitted the artists and the community.
The students benefitted greatly from the experience because they got a chance to show their work in public which is a large part of being an artist and they were also given a chance to engage in the community with their art and this made the auction an all-around beneficial experience, she said.
“Part of being an artist can be interacting with the community and this fulfills a lot of things. They get to show their work themselves and they get to feel pride in their work but they are engaging with their community, and then they are also giving back to the community by having this be a fundraiser, so there is a lot of good things about it,” she said.
Previous auctions Popowcer has put on with her University of New Mexico class and her CNM Drawing I class have been charitable events held at either Rebel Donuts or Cake Fetish and have gone towards the Children’s Hospital and also towards the Animal Humane Society, she said.
Any art students who may be interested in becoming great artists and possibly being a part of future auctions should consider taking Popowcer’s art studio classes and always work hard at their art, show some pride, and most importantly be willing to learn, she said.
Learning and working is what Popowcer considers to be the most important part of being an artist, she said, and she believes that without the challenge that goes with the two, there is no progress within an artist, she said.
“The more you work, the better you get. As an artist I am constantly learning and working because I can only get better that way. You have to challenge yourself and to challenge yourself you have to be open to failure,” she said.
Popowcer also said that anyone who decides to stop by Rebel Donut to bid on one of the pieces should also consider getting an apple fritter because they are her favorite, but if she ate bacon she would get the bacon bars all the time.
Rebel Donut has won the 2013 Golden Fork Award, The Alibi’s Best of Burque 2012 and 2013, and also obtained the Albuquerque Magazine’s 2012 Best of the City Award.
