What might be a misshapen piece of clay to one viewer is a treasured piece of art to a family member.
And what looks like a summer art class might be creative therapy for a child with special needs or family issues at home.
So Dancing Spirit Community Arts Center offers free art classes to students of all ages this summer. Classes are every Tuesday and Thursday starting at 9:30, through Aug. 1.
"Art is a great way for kids to express themselves," said Kasey Correia, director at Dancing Spirit. "It involves math, science, measurements and perspective. It stimulates the brain's neuropathways for expression in a positive way."
On Tuesday, six kids started the class in Ignacio, creating inuksuks, which are piles of rocks used by northern Native tribes as markers for directions or hunting. By the end of the two sessions, the class had grown to 12 students.
A few girls didn't like making the rock markers and turned their stacks of rocks into snowmen, painting their bodies white and adding smiley faces.
Everest Shubert, 12, has been attending the art classes all summer and has created a pot on a clay wheel, pinch pots, a fused glass night light, and canvas paintings. He's liked using art to create different pieces that he can keep or take to his family.
"We use art as therapy, and also for fun," Correia said. When children feel free to create something from their own imaginations, "they learn what freedom means."
As many as 29 students have taken part in the classes on one day.
Katrina Jameson, one of the teachers in the program, explained Tuesday's lesson was based on the book Only One You by Linda Kranz. The students were creating two rock pieces, one to take home, and another to display in a rock garden the gallery is creating.
Bella Luz Smith, 9, also has been attending the classes all summer.
"It's so much fun," she said. "It's awesome."
The classes have been funded by an education grant from the LPEA Round Up Foundation, along with the money booth at Sky Ute Casino, and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. In addition to the art classes, members of the Boys and Girls Club of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe come during the week for art classes.
The public is invited to a family art morning from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Thursday, July 27, featuring artwork of the summer art students being displayed in the gallery.
"Anybody is welcome to come create art," Correia said. There will be sprinklers and other games for the art class participants, as well.
"I love teaching the art classes," Correia said.
"Where do they get these ideas? Kids don't know we're giving them tools for them to grow as individuals, to be empowered."
And yes, with a couple of dozen kids, sometimes things get chaotic, "but it's orderly chaos," Correia joked. "But look at what those kids made today! It's awesome that they can paint and glaze and create."
Family art morning
The public is invited to a family art morning from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Thursday, July 27, at Dancing Spirit Community Arts Center.
115 Ute Street in the Ignacio ELHI Center, 563-4600.
