Rumor has it that beneath her quiet exterior lies a talented artist, curator in the making, and a hard working woman with a lot of spunk.

A short walk over to City College’s Atkinson Gallery proves the rumor right.

Brandy Harrison is an art history major hailing from Houston, Texas, with a slight twang and radiant smile. Last year she worked as a gallery sitter and is presently the Gallery Intern, working under Gallery Director, Dane Goodman. But she is also an artist in her own right.

Before coming to City College, Harrison thought of herself as an art history buff who was adrift. Keenly aware of her love of art, she didn’t know what to do with it. When she learned about the internship, she quickly realized “this is the perfect opportunity to learn about the business side of art.”

She stayed at City College for a third year just to take the position. She previously attended several colleges and “was always changing my major. I’ve been in school forever. I love art, but I was always worried about how I’d support myself,” she said.

Harrison loves the many requirements of her job.

“I get to be involved with every aspect of the gallery,” she said. This involves more than putting up and taking down shows, or even the endless amount of paperwork and press releases any new exhibit requires.

Harrison feels inspired to be surrounded daily by creativity.

“This constant exposure to art, talking to Dane [Goodman], and being exposed to new artists is making my love and appreciation for art grow ever stronger,” Harrison said. “I now realize how big a part of my life art is.”

According to Goodman, the job offers interns opportunities that students in most four-year colleges rarely, if ever, get. He involves his assistants in all gallery activities, including visiting museums where they take back scene tours, and see things most people will never see.

“They get to meet jurors – very prominent people in the art world, from L.A. and beyond,” Goodman said.

When Goodman first learned that he had to create the intern position, he was concerned. He thought it would be a lot of work for him with little return. He was wrong.

“It has become a joyful thing – an unexpected sweet bonus,” he said. His prior interns have gone on to do big things. It is not just the hard work, but also the job’s responsibilities that opens doors for interns.

Harrison’s job requires her to curate a student show both fall and spring semester. Each and every step of the project is entirely her responsibility. Her current show of students, Dini O’Brien and Kelsy Hawk, is on display in the Atkinson Gallery Annex until Feb. 20.

The exhibit is cleverly hung with a student’s limited budget in mind, using fine nails to set the pieces out from the wall. But Harrison shyly downplays her role in the exhibit. She is equally reticent to discuss her own creations.

The mixed media craftsman has a hard time applying the title “artist” to herself. But others do not. She was awarded first place in City College’s student art show in both 2008 and 2009. This past fall, she had her work selected to be hung in the prestigious Small Images show.

Faculty member Stephanie Dotson taught Harrison in three classes.

Harrison’s work is “really contemporary. In terms of student work, hers emerges as very mature,” Dotson said. “She can function as an artist outside of college. Her work is really funny. It’s very dry and humorous.”

“She’s really good at taking popular culture and disguising it as her own,” Dotson said. “There is a dark side to her stuff as well. It’s not overly sweet or glossy. It just uses images that are.”

Harrison said that more than anything else, her work is influenced by art history. And while there is no one theme that describes her work, she admits to having a reoccurring one.

“All things must come to an end,” she said. “Beauty, death. Nothing is permanent.”

Nothing perhaps except Harrison’s love of art and the need to create.

“I just keep making art, learning new mediums and expressing myself,” she said.

At the moment, the only way to see Harrison’s art is to be invited to her bedroom. But the blossoming curator admits that it is high time she create a website.

Harrison’s immediate plan for the future is to return home for the summer. In the long run, however, she still struggles with seeing herself as a working artist.

“I see myself doing a community service job and doing my own art on the side,” she said. “I used to want to be famous. But I don’t care about that anymore, thank goodness.”

She may not care, but by all appearances, Harrison’s spunk and talent as an artist and curator is heading toward fame just the same.