David Bennett
By Riley
    My dad is an architect. David Bennett was born in Kansas, Missouri, January 9th, 1962. David’s family wasn’t the nicest to him. David said his family is great now. David studied at Pierce College. David is a sketch artist and architect. He got interested by his father. That’s his history.
    David’s art form is architecture. David was trained at Pierce College.  David works in his basement. David was inspired by Brad Meister Fuller. He showed his work at school and work. David gets his ideas by looking at other buildings. David uses a pencil, paper and ruler. That’s David’s art form.
    This is the project David suggested. David said for us to draw a building we really like. David said use a ruler, a pencil and some sketch paper. These are the steps he told us to follow. Get supplies, then decide where to build. Draw plans for the building and start.


Efraim Cruz
By Marco
    My dad was born in 1967. He was born in Mexico. He had a family of 8 brothers and sisters, without counting his parents and with his parents there were 10 in all. His family now is still 8 brothers and sisters, but they’re all married. In college, he got one year of education, and studied in Guadalajarce, Jaalisco, his best teachers were in middle school. My dad’s history of how he got to do his art form is really interesting.
    My dad was trained in Santa Ana, California, Reno, Nevada and Colorado. My dad does his work in Bozeman, MT and in Big Sky, MT. My dad’s inspiration in these art forms was his cousin’s husband. He shows his art in Bozeman, MT and Big Sky, MT. He gets his ideas from his experiences and from the work plans. The materials that my dad uses are all kinds of machinery, hardware and wood.
    A suggested project that my class can do using this form is a house. The materials that you would need are sticks and a glue gun. The steps that you would need to know are first get all the materials that you would need. Next, you get the right people for the right job; get all the space you need. Then just make the rest. My dad’s art form is really interesting.

Ellen Ornitz
By Ryan
    I love art, it’s so much fun!  One of my favorite artists is Ellen Ornitz, and she was born December 13, 1951 in Los Angeles, California with a sister three years older. Her mother was a painter and her father was a photographer. Now her mother and father are passed away and her sister is a writer. Now she has a stepbrother who is a contractor in California married to a woman who is a school counselor. Ellen graduated high school in California. She also got her bachelors degree at California and came to Montana to study painting.
    After that she went to school and got her certificate to teach K-12 art. After that she went on for master’s degree in art education at the University of Bloomington, Indiana. Her favorite teacher was probably one she had in high school, Dorothy. She was an artist she inspired her also. If you have ever seen her work you would know she works with mix medium. The reason she got interested in art is her parents encouraged her to go to art museums.
 
Over the years, she learned by watching friends and reading books. You might be wondering where she does all this art. Well, her studio, her house which is between Manhattan and Belgrade. After she finishes her art, she shows it.  She shows it at museums in Montana. There’s one in Missoula and one in Helena. She has done a lot of people out of clay. Once she got an idea from a trip to Italy and saw a monument of a city buried under ash. She drew a picture of what it looked like.
A few things she uses are clay, cement, wood, paint and much, much more! Ellen suggested that we could make a mixed medium plaster mold of some object. The materials to do this would be plaster, clay, water containers and oil. These steps might come in handy. First, find your object. Second, put it in a container. Third, oil it up. Fourth, mix up plaster and pour it over object. Fifth, pull out object and let mold dry. Sixth, take a thin piece of clay and press it in. Let it dry and then pull it out. I think you’ll like the outcome.


Diana Tremain
By Olivia
    Diana Tremain was born on December, 5th, 1964 in New York City. She grew up with a mom, a dad and a sister. They were very conservative. Her Aunt and Uncle were serious art collectors, and this is how she was exposed to and got interested in art. Her family now consists of a two year old daughter and a husband. She has been to school from kindergarten through a B.F.A. Her best teachers were Susan Bothwell and Sam Amato. The type of artist she is, is a contemporary realist.
    She was trained to do her art form at UCLA. She does her work in her studio by her house. The artists that have inspired her are Richard Diebenkorn and Susan Bothwell. The places she sells her art are Gallatin River Gallery in Big Sky, Visions West in Bozeman and Center St. Gallery in Jackson Hole. She gets her ideas from the way she responds to nature. The materials she uses are oil paints, charcoal and canvas.
    For a school project in her art form, she said a good idea would be to give everyone a mini canvas and charcoal. First, we would think of favorite animals, then we would put any color on the canvas. You would wait for it to dry. Later draw the animal in charcoal. The materials we would need are charcoal, mini canvas and acrylic paint. Diana is an amazing artist and does wonderful work.
 

Anne’ Waters
By Hadley
    Anne was born in 1947. She grew up in Augsburg, Germany. Anne had three siblings, she called her grandma “Oma” and her grandpa “Opa”. Anne’s favorite teachers were her PE teacher and her German teacher. She went to high school and college and became a teacher in PE and Crafts. Anne’s mom is 90 and she still has three siblings. Anne got interested in art because her grandma did a lot of art with her.
    Anne started doing a lot of art in Germany, college, school and at home. Anne’s grandma inspired her to do a lot of her own art. Anne displays a lot of her art at home and at craft fairs. She gets a lot of her ideas from museums, books and other artists. For some of her art she uses eggs, dyes, special paper, paints and scissors.
    Anne says that if we were going to do an art project using her art form, we should do “paper snips” and to do that we would need paper and scissors. The way you would do this is 1. Fold  2. Draw  3. Cut.


Linda Goldan
By Nancy
    Our class interviewed artists for our Bozeman project. My artist is Linda Goldan. She is a local musician. Mrs. Goldan was born June 2nd, 1957 in Sacramento, California. Her parents and brother did not play instruments. Mrs. Goldan did choir through school and also did band. She started playing the Sax. Then she switched to guitar. She studied in Boulder, Colorado, but did workshops in Seattle. Her favorite teacher was Dave Marpone. She did pottery and painted. Then she decided to be a musician. She was inspired when her brother received a guitar and did not play it, so Mrs. Goldan started playing her brother’s guitar.
    Mrs. Goldan mainly plays at her home. But once and a while she will play with a friend who also plays guitar. She said that artists also inspire her such as, Joni Mitchell and so many other musicians. Mrs. Goldan wrote some of her own songs and played some of them live on the radio. Some of the supplies that she uses are: Gibson’s guitars, Taylors, cables, wiping cloths and music books. In all Linda is a great artist.
    Mrs. Goldan did not really know of a project that a class could do, but she did know what we could do to learn more about how to play the guitar. She said that good way to learn is by watching and educational DVD. We would need a DVD player a DVD and that is it. Linda Goldan is a spectacular musician and a nice lady.


Bruce Park
By Margot
    When I first saw Bruce Park’s artwork, I was so stunned I was about to fall over! It was amazing! Bruce Park was born in 1955 in Sacramento, California. The amazing thing was that his dad was a roof contractor and his mother was an assistant so he had no other artists in his family. He has 4 people in his immediate family, his son is 23 and goes to MSU and was in Mrs. Babcock’s class once, his daughter who’s 20 at MSU and was also in Mrs. Babcock’s class and last but not least his wife who is also an artist. The education he has had is that he graduated from high school, then college with a BFA in drawing and a Master’s in Painting. He went to California College of Arts and Crafts and his favorite teachers were Ralph Borge, who he says was a wonderful man and his high school teacher, Bob Gordan. Bruce Park is a chalk pastel artist and an oil paint artist. He said that the oil paints are still considered paints even thought they’re made of pigment. Bruce got interested in art by always doing it and never stopping. He said it was the only thing he was really good at. That’s Bruce Park’s history.
    You have no idea how good Bruce Park’s artwork is, but after you read this you will. Bruce Park was trained to do his wonderful art form at the California College of Arts and Crafts. The only problem with California is there are no landscapes to do. So he didn’t do landscapes until he moved to Montana. Bruce Park does his art outside and paints on site. Every summer he goes outside and paints for a week. The people who have inspired him are his teachers, Richard Deibinkom who is an abstract artist, and Clad Monegue. Bruce Park shows his art in Bozeman, Missoula, Helena, Sun Valley and North Carolina. He gets his ideas for his art from outside, and he says the light in his art pieces are the most important things. The materials that he uses are chalk pastels, canvas, and oil paints. That’s his art form. Learn anything?
    My class was hoping that we could do a project using his art form and here’s his idea. The project is to imagine yourself at a place in a certain year and a certain day and draw that exact thing. Be careful about the lighting! The materials that you need to use are paint and canvas. The steps are to get the paper and paints. Then on your paper sketch lightly what you want to do. After that you fill in where the light would be. Think where’s the sun? Think of everything even the day and time. Then you can fill in the rest and you’re done. Walla! There’s your art project and my report. Hope you like it. Thanks for reading.


Charles Adelle Lewis Totten
By Willy
    My dad is the greatest cook and baker ever I think. He was born on May 30, 1967, at an army base in Baumhelder, Germany. His family moved a lot, because his father was in the army. He got his degree at Hobart College and another degree at Culinary School. His father died four years ago and he’s really close to his mother and sister. He moved to Bozeman, MT twelve years ago and is married to my mom, Alison. Then there’s my little sister who’s really amazing.
    What do you think? He somehow became a brilliant chef. He went to L’academie de Cuisine Culinary School, which involved one year of apprenticeship working at a fancy French restaurant. After that, he was a chef. He bought a little restaurant that we called the Sweet Pea Café and Bakery. We decided to sell it. Now he cooks and bakes for family and friends. His art is not shown at any gallery or studio. It’s on the dinner table. He gets most of his ideas from cooking books and magazines. I bet you can guess some of the things he uses. Here I’ll give you a hint. They’re foods. He uses pretty much everything that’s food like fruits, vegetables, meats, seeds, grains and more.
    My dad suggested a project for us to do with cooking. It is to make chocolate chip cookies, except our cookies are a little different. Here are some ingredients.
2 cups and 2 tablespoons flour
_ teaspoon salt
_ teaspoon baking soda
1 _ sticks melted butter
1 cup brown sugar
_ cup sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups chocolate chunks
These are the ingredients. Here’s how you make it. First you preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Mix together all dry ingredients. Cream melted butter and vanilla. Add dry ingredients until just combined and add chocolate chunks. Arrange small balls of dough on cookie sheet. Bake 15 minutes. And that’s how you make chocolate chip cookies. My dad is a very good chef.
 

Tayran Boals
By Amber
    Tayran Boals, a talented artist and resident of Bozeman, was born on June 6th, 1985 in Freeport, Illinois. She grew up on a farm with her parents and siblings. Right now, she and her brother are in college. Their family likes baseball and four-wheeling. Tayran went to school in many different places. She went to high school in Orangeville, Illinois and went to college in Davenport, Iowa. She then came to Bozeman, Montana to study at Montana State University.
    Tayran is a painter and uses oil paints. She shows her art a Montana Trails Gallery. Tayran got started in art by coloring contests for different businesses. Tayran’s grandmother kept her going on art. She has an art studio at MSU and at home. She was also influenced by her art teachers. She gets her ideas by looking at pictures. Some materials she uses are; canvas, oil paints and brushes.
    Tayran’s suggested project is a mural. The steps we would use to make the project are:
1. Pick a favorite animal
2. Sketch out some ideas
3. Draw it on the wall
4. Start painting
The materials you would need to do this project are:
1. Paints
2. Brushes
3. Ideas
Tayran donates her time and talents to Longfellow students who are interested in
art by being an art mentor.


Jamie Lenon
By Cole
    Jamie Lenon was born on January 29th, 1948 in Kalispell, Montana. His parents were both native Montanans. Both of his parents went to college. His mom graduated from the University of Montana with a degree in science and his father graduated from Montana State College (now called Montana State University) with a degree in architecture. Jamie grew up with two sisters, Jamie raised two children with his wife her in Bozeman. He has a daughter who now lives in New York City and works as an industrial designer. Jamie’s son just moved back to Bozeman and is considering law school. Jamie says his son takes after Jamie’s wife. His wife is a fifth grade teacher at Hawthorne School. His daughter, Jamie feels, takes more after himself. Jamie’s father influenced his career path. Jamie graduated from MSU with a BA in architecture. His degree was a five year program and today the same degree would be considered a masters degree. While attending college, Jamie had a few second thoughts about his choice of the field of architecture. Fortunately for Bozeman, he continued his course of study, Jamie likes architecture because it is such a broad field. He is able to talk to people and help them create and design their visions and dreams. Jamie appreciates the function of the buildings  he designs but he also goes the extra mile to make sure his client’s projects look pleasing as well.
    After receiving a degree in architecture from MSU, Jamie’s training continued through his travels abroad. He was able to observe buildings around the world that have influenced his own art form; designing commercial properties here in Bozeman. Jamie creates commercial building designs in his office on Main Street. Once a project is on paper and ready to be built, Jamie supervises the project on site. Most of his “creating” happens on a computer. Jamie taught himself to design his project on computer six years ago. His associates were using computers so he decided to get with the times and now all his work starts on the computer. Working on the computer allows him to create an animated design for his clients. He can actually “walk” a client all the way around a building model through the computer program he uses. This makes the model Jamie shows his clients much more flexible and realistic. It is easier for clients to envision what their building will look like when it is built. Typically a client will come to Jamie and have a basic idea for a building they want designed. Sometimes a developer will come to him and say design a building that will fit on this specific piece of property. Jamie loves this type of project because it allows him greater freedom to create his “art”. Some of the projects Jamie ahs designed in the Bozeman are for the Museum of the Rockies, the airport, Morning Star and Emily Dickinson Elementary Schools. Jamie is designing the new Chief Joseph Middle School, the Ophir School addition in Big Sky and the new elementary school on Babcock. He says the airport was one of his most challenging and complicated projects because of all the security issues the airlines had. Jamie enjoys the school projects the most!
    Jamie recommended that a fun class project might be to design a house. The ultimate house a fifth grader would want to live in. First discuss as a class what rooms are the most important for living and function like bathrooms, kitchen and bedrooms. Then discuss what rooms or features would add to the beauty of the atmosphere of the house such as a billiard room or library. The class would also need to agree on the yard or landscaping that complete the project. After the class agrees on the elements needed in the floor plan, it is time to actually draw the floor plan using pencils, paper and rulers. Next the class would need to create a three dimensional model of the plan using chip board, cardboard, glue and an exacto knife.
    It was interesting interviewing Jamie. He showed me the new Chief Joseph Middle School plans and model. There were over 120 sheets of plans and at least ten people were involved in the designing the project. These included structural engineers, electrical engineers and civil engineers. Jamie has a very interesting profession and creates amazing works of art through his building designs!


Chelsea Smith
  By Arlen
Chelsea Smith is a really good artist. She was born in Galesburg, Illinois on August 22nd, 1957.  She said that her family back then was way too normal but very nice. Her family now is not as normal but they are still nice and fun loving. Chelsea got interested in art from all of her art teachers. She went to Drake University where she got a degree in Art History and Education.
    Now-a-days Chelsea owns an art studio named Artsplot. She works in her studio, but mostly she likes to work outside in nature. She gets her inspiration from a lot of things, including her students, nature and Van Gogh. Chelsea likes to paint a lot. However she also works with pottery and ceramics. She shows her work in her studio. During the summer, I like to do summer camp with Artsplot. Chelsea takes us on field trips so we learn to do art in town and in nature.
One art project that Chelsea suggested we do in class is one that I’ve done with her many times at Artsplot. The project is to make clay heads and then draw a picture of them. The materials that we would need are clay, paper and pencils. What is involved? Make a clay head, draw a clay head. Chelsea Smith is a fun teacher and a great artist. I hope she can come to our class sometime to teach art.


Craig Van Den Bosch
By Nolan
    Craig Van Dan Bosch was born on June 10, 1972, and born in Muskegon, Michigan. When he was born his parents were in their 20’s. His brother grew up to be an artist, his sister was an architect. Both of them were younger, sadly his parents divorced. His mom is living in Michigan and his dad is in Detroit. The type of artist he is is intermedia. He has done art since kindergarten. He just sort of started.
    He trained himself through experience. He will work really anywhere. He mostly works at his kitchen table. He shows his work at a lot of different galleries like the Emerson. He will use really anything to make art.
    An idea project we can do is to make a mono print, get a sheet of plexi-glass. You can scratch it or paint it or both. Then you run it through a press if you can’t rub it with a spoon.

 
Michelle Gantt
By Bryan
    Michelle was born in Kentucky in 1960. She was the oldest of three children. Her father was a minister, and her mother was a teacher. She finished college with a degree in design. Her ceramics teacher was her favorite, because he made everybody in her class feel good about their work. Now she lives with her husband Ron, her daughter Minna and her dog Rosie in Sundance Springs. She is a ceramist. She grew up in an artistic family.
    Michelle was educated at City College in Sand Francisco. She does and displays her art at the Emerson. Her teachers really inspire her. She gets her ideas from almost anywhere, other artists, art, magazines, thinking and drawing in her sketch book. All she uses are clay, a potting wheel, glaze and a kiln.
    Michelle suggested that for a project we make holiday mugs or bowls. We would need clay, glaze, and find somebody who would be willing to let us use their kiln. The steps would be – 1. Shape mugs or bowls. 2. Fire them using kiln. 3. Glaze however you wish. 4. Fire again and then you have your cups or mugs.


G.K. Reiser
By David
    Mr. Reiser was born on October 26, 1952 in Bozeman. His family is a traditional family. He has 2 older sisters. A lot of his family was born in Bozeman, but now they live in other places. He went to every grade except for college. He wasn’t always a sculptor, he was also a painter, a carpenter and then later he became a sculptor. No one taught him. He taught himself.
    His impression is all kinds of painters. His favorite kind of art is 2D style. The art he makes is displayed in his front yard, and in some galleries. When he’s going to build a new piece, he doesn’t draw it out. The rocks tell him. He makes his pieces with rock, steel, and concrete.
    You can make these sculptures with tie wire, wood, metal and rocks. The tie wire is very flexible. Wrap the tie wire around the rocks. After that, tie the tie wire to the wood base. Then add the metal later.


Todd Wilkinson
By Ellie
Todd Wilkinson is a writer and he was born on August3rd, 1962, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His parents owned a restaurant for 32 years. He went to St. Olaf College. His favorite teacher taught history. Also Todd has journalism. Todd worked on a school newspaper.
    Todd worked for the City News Bureau of Chicago. Todd works in his office at home and he travels. His favorite author is Mike Royke. He puts his articles in national newspapers and magazines. Todd gets his ideas from people who inspire him. He uses paper, pencils and experts in his work.
    Todd thinks we should do a school newspaper. We will need typing paper, kids with ideas, and people to interview. You type what you want to say and then print it.


Mardella Brock
By Gabriel
    Mardella Brock was born in 1932 in North Dakota. Her family farmed for a living. She was the oldest of 14 children. Mardella attended school in a one room school house. She struggled in school until a teacher, Mrs. Hazelton, helped her get glasses so she could read better. Mardella attended college in Montana. She studied to become a teacher at Dillon and MSU. She raised her family in Bozeman and has 3 grown children and 3 grandchildren.
    She is a potter and was trained to do her craft in community art classes. Mardella became interested in art during college. She makes her pottery in her studio. She is inspired by anyone who does art. Mardella shows her pottery at her studio and ACE Hardware. She uses clay, rocks, feldspar, earth, fire, water and air in her work.
    A project Mardella thinks we could do in our class is a clay sculpture. We could either do a sculpture of ourselves or our favorite animal. We would use clay and tools to decorate the clay. We would start with soft clay, form it into a design and add colored slip.


Zach Beam
By Josiah
    My brother Zach was born in 1990 in Crystal River, Florida. His father was dysfunctional. He is now in 11th grade in high school. In Homosassa Springs he was put in the hospital because he broke his skull.
    My brother Zach, is a graphic artist. He won second place in an art show. He won an art contest also. He uses materials. He looks at nature and books for ideas for his art. He uses lots of different colors of paints. Believe in yourself is what he thinks. Help other people when you can.
    He suggested that we make a giant pencil drawing. We will need a pencil, a pen and paper. Find a scene you would like to draw. Then just make it up in your head and draw it.








Aaron Schuerr
By Connor
Davinci, Van Gogh, Picasso, Michelangelo and Aaron Schuerr. Aaron Schuerr was born on August 4th, 1973 in Chicago. His family was very creative. They had no television. Their family loved to be outdoors and to camp. He has three kids who are very involved in art. He attended the Art Institute of Chicago and Duncan of Jordonstone College of Art in Scotland. Aaron learns from more experienced artists. Some of his favorite teachers were Richard Doich, Maggy Phillips, Robert Moore, Russell Chatham and Joyce Lee. He paints landscapes and he also uses oil pastels. He decided to become an artist in one day when he was 8 years old. A woman lived down the street was drawing his school mascot. He borrowed one of her art books. He and his parents didn’t know he could draw that well.
    He likes to paint outside and with other artists. He paints mall paintings on location and the final painting in his studio. That is how he does his art. He enjoys the work of the artists in museums “the dead guys”. He also enjoys the Russian artist, Levitov. His art is shown at the Montana Trails Gallery. He paints rivers, mountains, landscapes, light and weather. He uses pencils, paper, charcoal, pastels and oil paints.
    Aaron suggested a project for us to do. We would take a field trip to a fishing access site or a park. We would need a sketch book, pencils and water colors. If possible, Aaron would come and show us how to do the art project from there. If not, we would paint what we see. This project would remind us of Aaron’s work.


   


Sue MacPherson
By Molly
Sue MacPherson was born 1938 in Syracuse, New York. She had a loving and supportive family, which is now getting big with grandchildren. For education Sue went through high school and “extra credit classes” in NY and MT. Her studies included Latin, chemistry and art. Her art medium is watercolor. But high school was not the only place my grandmother was involved in art. She’s always had an interest for drawing and coloring from when she was a kid.
    Sue got art training from private art classes with artists. She works at home, outside, and in her classes. Her inspiration is Bonnie Lawson, an artist. My grandma’s show rooms are her family’s homes and friend’s too. She gets her ideas from landscapes and books. Sue uses brushes, paint, and watercolor paper to paint her works.
    Here’s a fun project my grandma suggested that our class do. It’s a leaf rubbing/watercolor wash. The materials Sue uses are a leaf, brushes, paint, watercolor paper, and wax paper. The steps are to:
1. Position leaf on top of watercolor paper with wax paper covering that.
2. Iron or press with ruler to make a leaf print.
3. Wash behind that?
Although Sue does not sell her pieces or display them in a museum, she’s an artist
all the same.







Rob Wilke
By Elise
    Here is the history of Rob Wilke. He was born June 22, 1957, in San Francisco, CA. The family he grew up in had three sisters in it and a dad who worked a lot, but it was still fun. Family now is two wonderful kids. He’s a single dad, and life is expensive. Rob’s education consisted of an associate degree in fine arts and photography. His best teachers were Shirley Fisher and Richard Plaisance as well as various photographers that he worked with. Now he is primarily a commercial photographer. Rob got interested in photography and art because he met an assistant to Ansel Adams. They became friends. He liked what artists had to say and how they lived in the world. That’s how he got interested. How do you think you might get interested in art?
    This part is about his art. Mr. Wilke trained as a freelance assistant in San Francisco. Now he works in his studio that’s next to his house. Here are some of the artists who inspired him: Ansel Adman, Minou White, Edward Weston, Pablo Picasso, Pete Turner, Sean Kendnon, Matisse, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Georgia O’Keefe, Gordon Parkes and many others. Rob shows his art in his studio, in magazines and in catalogs. He gets his ideas while riding his bike, taking a bath or right before he falls asleep they come to him. The materials he uses are many different kinds of digital cameras. He rarely uses film, but he still likes it. Photography is his art, what is yours?
    This is a project he suggested we do in our class. Here are the steps that we could follow. 1. Take portraits of everyone in the class. 2. Print out photos in black and white on water color paper. 3. Paint each picture with watercolor and have fun with it! Materials we should use for the project, camera, printer, watercolor paper, watercolors, and time. That sounds fun, I hope we try it.



 

Lisa Pierson
By Evan
Lisa Pierson was born June 7th, 1964, in Seattle, Washington. She had a natural talent for music. Her mom and dad sent her to a music preschool. Her family all loved music. Lisa’s dad loved jazz, and her mom loved classical music. She lived in a family of six. Her brothers and sister are Jenifer, Jason and Josh. Lisa would always make up songs on everything. She started piano lessons early, during preschool. Mr. Radcliffe was her first piano teacher. She was tough but good. Another good teacher was Mr. Goddard. He helped inspire Lisa for music. Dr. Skones was also an awesome teacher. He really knew how to make a class sing. Lisa studied at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. Then she married Eric Pierson. Lisa has six kids, four boys and two girls. They love sports and music. She decided to be a pianist and vocalist.
Lisa had sixteen years of piano lessons and five years of vocal lessons. That’s a lot of practice. Soon it all paid off. She started leading in worship at church, and accompanying soloists. Singing solos was another thing she did. Before you perform, you must practice. She’s also been in choirs. Lisa was inspired mostly by her parents, especially her dad. Another person was her high school choir director, Mr. Goddard. One really big one God, giving her the heart for music.
A project that Lisa thought of for our class was to “learn a song and perform it.” We would have to hear the music. Practice the song and memorize it. Then perform the song in front of a crowd. Studying a local artist was a blast because I learned more about my mom Lisa!



 

Lisa Vanderpan
By Dani
    Lisa Vanderpan was born April 14th, 1959 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her dad was in the air force so growing up was crazy because her family moved a lot. Now her family is still crazy but in a good way because she has four kids, one cat, and one dog.
    She got her masters degree and studied at Washington State. Her favorite teacher growing up was her fifth and sixth grade teacher, Mr. McBride.
    Lisa Vanderpan is a fiber artist and stared sewing when she was six. She is a self taught artist and does her art in her studio. A few things that inspire her are her friends, her children, nature and life. Lisa shows her art in quilt shows and gets ideas everywhere. In her art, she uses threads, fabric, found objects and a lot of buttons.
    A project she suggested that we could do is a fleece pillow. You need 1.) An old pillow. 2) Two fleece squares (slightly larger than pillow) and that’s all. The instructions are: 1) Cut strips into squares. 2) Lay fleece over the pillow and tie. 3) Enjoy.




Eric Carr
By Clair
    Eric was born June 24th, 1964 in Boston. When he was growing up he had three sisters and one brother. His mom was a school teacher, and his father worked at an insurance company. Back then his mother was always at school, and his father had to work. So their grandmother raised them. She was a great Swedish cook. They grew up cooking Swedish foods. Their grandmother dressed them in traditional costumes, and they danced Swedish dances. Now Eric has 3 kids who are 11, 9, and 7. His wife is an accountant for the Overeasy restaurant. She is a stay at home mom, pays bills, and pays employees. Eric owns the Main Street Overeasy. Eric graduated high school then went through military training for cooks at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. He is a culinary artist working with food and creating food that is entertaining to look at, to taste, to smell and to feel. By cooking with his grandma he stared to love cooking. His grandma was a great cook. She had a real passion for it. It was important to her. She would look for reactions towards her food.
    Eric cooked in the military for four years. He saved money to go to cooking school in New York. He studied under the top chefs of the whole world. He took classes like food design, pastry art, ice carving, decorating tables with food, how to carve watermelon baskets, flower arrangements, and making food fancy. He makes food at the restaurant for weddings and artistic parties. His grandmother inspired him. He shows his art at parties, catering, and his restaurant. He incorporates his artistic skills every time he cooks. He gets his ideas from colorful foods, other foods, really bright foods, magazines, other chefs, and going out to eat. Like everyone else, he uses kitchen utensils and fresh food. He likes to cook at home the most. He likes to cook everything but is entertained by traditional foods from a certain area. The easiest thing he cooks is a pancake. The hardest thing he cooks is an egg, because the egg protein is the most sensitive and tricky cooking ingredient.
    Eric suggested a project in which you make fresh pasta. Here are the items you will need; eggs, water, flour, salt, a rolling pin, cookie cutters, and a pizza cutter. Here are the steps you will need to follow: 1. Put flour on the cutting board. 2. Make a hole in the middle and crack an egg in it. 3. Add water and salt. 4. Mix it with a fork until it forms a ball. 5. Knead it for about 10 minutes. 6. Roll it out using flour. 7. Cut it into shapes. 8. Cook it in water. 9. Serve it. 10. Eat it!



Mike Barlow
By Natalie
    Being born with an artist for a dad and a mom who plays music, who knew what you’d turn out to be? Mike Barlow was born in Gillette, Wyoming in 1963. He loves animals now and that probably comes from living with ranching people while growing up. He spent some of his days watching his dad paint, and sculpting little figures out of clay. But he never discovered his talent until later. What he really wanted to be when he grew up was a veterinarian (something to do with animals of course). Mike Barlow now has three kids, a wife, a dad and a mom. They all enjoy his work and greatly admire him. He is a sculptor and really looks up to his dad. Mike Barlow didn’t go to art school but just look at what he is now.
    Mike Barlow works at an old school in Livingston very much like the Emerson.  He shows his work in places like Jackson Hole, and New York, and art museums. He travels a lot to get ideas for sculptures like animals from Africa and the United States. He is a photographer too, because he needs the idea of what he is sculpting. He works really hard to make a sculpture look appealing to people.
    Mike Barlow can give our class little pieces of clay to make tiny animal sculptures and we could just make it ourselves. So now you know about an artist that has just become famous to my class (by reading it obviously).


Martha Rotella
By Bridget
    Martha Rotella is the most inspiring artist ever. Martha was born in Florida, June 11th, 1955. She has a big Irish family. Martha is married and adopted a child. She gets together with her brothers, sisters, mother and father every year. She went to college and got a bachelors degree in fine arts. She mostly paints with oils and is a landscape artist. Martha was greatly inspired by her mother as a child because she was an artist.
    Martha Rotella’s art is amazing and I’ll tell you a little about it. When Martha was young her mother taught her art, and she also had an art teacher. Martha is a landscape artist so she mostly paints outdoors where the landscape is. Sometimes she paints in her studio. Her mother was greatly inspired her Van Gogh has pitched in and Tom Tomson has inspired Martha a ton. She usually shows her art at her brother’s gallery, Stellers, in Florida. Right now she is not showing her art anywhere. Martha gets her ideas from other artist’s work, and of course the scenery in Montana. Martha Rotella paints with oils and she puts thoughts on birch board or canvas. She uses pencils too. Now you know her art is amazing.
    Martha suggested that we should do a still life project. We would need to have watercolor or oil paints, pencils and paper to do this. The steps we would do for this project would be to look at pictures of inanimate objects and sketch them. Then we would paint that object referring to our sketch. It sounds like great fun!



Chris Owens
By Michael
    Chris Owens is an amazing artist and I’m going to tell you about her. She was born in 1949 in Boston. When she was growing up her dad was in the air force, and her mom was a teacher. They traveled all over. She’s married and has three daughters and six grandkids. She went to 3 years of college and then 5 years of art classes in Georgia.
    Now I’m going to tell you how she does her art and where. She took classes in art for 8 years. She does her art upstairs in her studio. She was inspired by Robert Batman. She gets a lot of her ideas from nature. She doesn’t show her art anywhere now but she plans to.
    She suggested an art project for us. Get a photo of something you like. The materials you need are paper, pencil, a photograph, and pastels. Here are the steps 1.Get a photograph. 2. Draw it, and smear pastels. DON”T COPY. That’s everything about Chris Owens.




Stacy Hostetter
By Rachel
    First I will tell you about the history of this artist. Well my artist was born in 1965 on March 31st, in Redding, California. Stacy Hostetter’s family was very busy, active, creative, musical, encouraging and nurturing. Her family was also very creative. Right now she has two daughters in college. Stacy had a lot of education and she got a bachelor degree in art at Montana State University. Some of Stacy’s favorite teachers include Mrs. Pace, Mrs. Safford, Mr. Chandler and Mr. Gary Sullivan. Some of the other teachers include Mr. Schlotzauer. All of those teachers taught drawing and painting at MSU. Another one of Stacy’s teachers is named Honey Hamburg who taught art history. Stacy Hostetter is a multiple medium artist. She does painting, sketching and also she designs costumes and writes plays. She is also a wonderful musician. My artist got interested in art when she was younger. She got interested in art by writing stories and illustrating them. Stacy was also very quiet and shy so most of the time she drew horses when she was younger.
    I am going to talk about Art. Stacy was trained all through school, also in middle school and high school she was interested in art. Stacy does her art in her house and does theater in the park. Some of the artists that have inspired Stacy include Van Gogh, Gustav Klempt and Mary Cassatt. Stacy has shown her art in the past in home shows, Wishing Tree Gallery and local stages. When Stacy paints she gets her ideas from what she sees around her. When she writes her ideas come out of nowhere. Some of the materials she uses include a computer, paint, oil pastels and fabric.
    Now I will talk about a suggested project. Stacy suggested a canvas project. We would need some of these materials; belts, bags, purses, floor cover, acrylic paints and metallic paints and also a pencil to draw the design. The procedure to do this project would include wall hanging or a hot pad or paper mache’ masks. Thank you and that was my interview.
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