A colorful room, echoing chatter, and the overwhelming shuffle of feet completely filled Santa Barbara City College’s Atkinson Gallery last Friday for the annual Small Images exhibition.

Celebrating its 25th year, it is one of the oldest annual exhibitions on the Central Coast and a staple in the Santa Barbara art community.

This year the exhibition successfully displayed a broad range of beautifully crafted works, which highlight the imagination, and skill of the artists, but overall lacks a cohesive structure.

With 2D, 3D, drawings, photography, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, and mixed media, there is a little of something for everyone. The variety overall is what makes the show enjoyable. But what makes it enjoyable may also be what makes it distracting.

While trying to navigate among the insurmountable amount of work adorning the walls, it leaves the viewer lost and trying to connect the dots.

Although there is so much, the placement of the art helps to alleviate some of the confusion by directing the viewer along the wall. Each section spoon-feeds the eye, while trying to connect with some of the visual themes that arose from the juror’s picks.

Following the designated path of the gallery, the viewers’ journey around the room begins on the left-hand side with a more traditional and soft body of work. Starting off with a charcoal drawing and an oil painting. But the viewers find themselves bumping into the sculptures, which seem to interject randomly, leaving them unable to digest one piece to the next.

Though unable to bring the show together as a whole, there were several stand-out pieces. Among them is Neum Littlehale’s bronze piece, “Flight of the Bumble Bee.” The figure is a highly dramatic, contorted, and lively close-up image of a bumblebee in flight.

Another notable piece is Nicole Stasburg’s piece titled “Rooted.” The piece is embroidery of a tree, well done and yet so simple. It has a haunting starkness to it, while the wax gives the piece many clear layers. It had me thinking for several hours after I left the gallery.

Each year the show garners prominent jurors, including this year’s, Thomas Lawson, the well-known painter, critic, and dean of Cal Arts in Valencia. Also, the rigorous and selective process of the juror is highly notable. This year, a total of 87 of the 320 entries were chosen, and 86 out of 159 artists were shown.

The Small Images show has a unique aspect in that it brings out so many artists from the community, young and old. Students as well as professional artists hang side by side in the same space.

For example, this year the juror’s award went to 90-year-old Aagie Pederson. His work is an interesting mixed media piece, titled “Bookmark.”

Bookmark uses cloth materials such as lace, and quilting material, which becomes a sculpture built out from a book. With interesting composition and layers of texture Pederson’s piece stood out as one of the many engaging pieces.

Unfortunately, the show loses impact by having no thematic structure, resulting in an overwhelming amount of pieces. But in no way is the work static. Overall, it leaves the viewer feeling lost as a whole, but appreciative of the individual art and artists.