Students, faculty, staff, admiration and community members have the opportunity to view the paintings of Artist, and UC Berkeley Professor John McNamara at the Campus art gallery until December 22nd. 
 McNamara is known for taking photographs and putting them on canvas or wood panels, then from there he will paint the photographs. For the past 24 years he has been painting collages. His artwork is unique as it isn’t the typical painting on a canvas. Not only does he paint on canvas he paints on wood panels. He also adds lots of texture to his art work.
McNamara has been painting for over 25 years, starting out when he was a small child.
“I started out with paint-by-numbers, and then started into watercolors, then moved on to oil painting. Mostly working from photographs,” he said. 
He discussed how he got into landscape painting. 
“I was interested in landscape painting, and so I would find in the local paper there would be certain covers in color that would show landscapes so I would try to copy it,” McNamara adds in. 
McNamara has been teaching for the past 42 years consecutively. He started in graduate school and hasn’t stopped since. He credits his mentor Joseph Santoro with influencing him to teach as well as assisting McNamara in getting into Art college.
“If I had not met Joe I would probably not be here now. My life would have been very different, he was a pivotal factor,”  McNamara said. 
The Art department offers an Exhibition class where students assist the gallery staff in setting up gallery shows like McNamara’s.
Krystall Willhite (junior, Art) was part of the exhibition class that helps set up the gallery. she took a liking to McNamara’s art while setting up the gallery.
“I love painting, when we were setting up the gallery I saw how he (McNamara) used a lot of texture in his paintings and I liked that,” said Willhite.
Alissa Gonzalez (sophomore, Psychology) was drawn to the exhibit due to her interest in painted artwork. She really enjoys how McNamara combines photos with his work and morphs them into something completely different.
“I am really into art, there aren’t a lot of museums around here so it is really cool the campus has events like this,” said Gonzalez.