The once sparse room that serves as SF State's Martin Wong Gallery now bursts with color and concept, featuring the work of SF State's painters and potters.

The scholarship fund for the gallery comes from Florence Wong, mother of SF State artist Martin Wong, who passed away in 1999. In homage to her son, Florence started the fund in 2002 for SF State students to showcase their artwork.

The scholarship provides recipients with the funds to cover all the different supplies and materials the artist may need to produce their work as well as be an inspiration to others.

"I think it's great to have the best artists be shown off in the same place that the piece was made," said Brian Shapiro, co-director of the Martin Wong Exhibit. "It really inspires and pushes other student artists to create when they see their fellow student's works on the wall."

The scholarship is awarded to two different students in either the field of painting or ceramics after members of the art department Scholarship Review Committee judge the work on the basis of merit. Students submit their work to the committee in the fall and the funds are made available after the fourth week census of the semester, with a first prize of $1,500 and a second prize of $1,000.

"It's really an honor to be given this scholarship because Martin Wong was an amazing artist and I have a lot of respect for him as a painter," said first-prize winning artist Holly Williams.

Williams, already a working artist from Los Angeles, is finishing up her graduate work at SF State. Her mysterious and equivocal paintings are mainly inspired by the film and television industry she said she was surrounded by as a child and by her father, who is an animator.

"My work is mostly about the film experience versus the real experience," said Williams. "I feel like when I am painting, I am translating something and it helps me to interpret and understand and make sense of the world."

The scholarship allows different artists to showcase their unique styles. Laurel Shear, whose painting won second prize, said in a statement that her work is mainly inspired by pictures of her father taken from a camera phone. The low resolution of the pictures is an inspiration for how she manipulates the oil paint to convey light.

"As time passes, the matter that makes up my dad, me and everything else in the world transforms and disappears," she said in the statement.

The Martin Wong scholarship is very well known in the art department, but students majoring in art with an emphasis in ceramics don't often apply for it, art students said.

Graduate student Amy Horn was one of only a handful of ceramics majors applying this academic year. She pursued the opportunity after some encouragement from teachers, and entered her heart-shaped tea pots for consideration.

"The scholarship helped me produce more art to be shown and sold," said Horn, expressing hopes that her participation in the show will encourage more ceramicists to apply.

Horn said she also hopes to use this publicity to help propel her into the ceramics world in Chicago and to pursue a career using art therapy for special needs children.

"Most special needs children I worked with had heart problems, and that's why I chose the heart as my main piece to work with," said Horn, who worked with special needs children back in her hometown of San Diego. "In our lives we all struggle with our heart, everyone can relate to the pain, heartache or joy that is felt in life."

For Jennifer Macias, another ceramics artist, the show has fueled the fire that encourages her to "be the best [she] can be" and to inspire around her. She refers to her pieces as being eclectic in style and representative of the type of artist Macias aims to be.

"Since I have been surrounded by negativity all my life, I have been able to channel that experience into doing something positive for myself and rising above it all," said Macias.

Macias is from East Palo Alto and has applied for the scholarship three times since enrolling at State. She said that her recent award has proven that the struggles she went through at the beginning of her college art career have finally paid off.

"Just getting recognition from the school proves that I actually am a good artist," said Macias.

The four artists' work is the first to be featured in this gallery and is currently on exhibit through February 11.