Students take in Portland arts event

Bethany Gunnarson believes that a great way to get her art students' creative juices flowing is to remove them from their comfort zone and immerse them in a broad range of styles. The Sisters High School art teacher did just that last Friday, traveling with 27 of her students to the Portland Convention Center for the 2011 Ceramics Showcase - the largest pottery show in the nation.

The students, mostly freshmen and sophomores who have demonstrated an interest by taking more than one semester of art, toured one hall of the Convention Center which was entirely filled with Oregon pottery. Another hall featured works from a variety of art guilds including the Creative Metal Art Guild, the Guild of Oregon Woodworkers, Oregon Glass Guild, Portland Bead Society and the Portland Handweavers Guild.

Demonstrations of different clay techniques were staged throughout the day, led by nationally acclaimed artists.

Gunnarson, who teaches Art, Jewelry and Ceramics at SHS said: "It has an impact: going to a big town, being exposed to large amounts of art all at once of different styles.

"Sisters is very much an outdoorsy, folky community but the kids are more diverse; the art coming out of them is more contemporary. They see a lot of one thing and they feel they want to be something different than the norm."

The SHS group also made a side trip to Art Media, Portland's popular art supply retailer. Says Gunnarson, "I wanted to bring the kids to a fine art store."

She's pleased with the level of interest and enthusiasm her students are displaying this year, and she can't help eyeing the potential of the younger ones, noting, "There are a lot of really talented up-and-coming students."