McFarland Middle School art students volunteer for community project

OTHELLO — The Othello community garden got a new shed to help store the paraphernalia that goes along with gardening, but it looked a little plain. Pretty darn plain in fact, so the people running the garden decided to ask the students in McFarland Middle School art classes to spruce it up. Eighth grade art students were asked to come up with a design, said MMS art teacher Gretchen Durepo. The community garden is across the street from MMS, so the project was a natural extension. “It kind of evolved into a class thing.” It’s not a big shed, but the kids were asked to paint all four sides, so there was a lot of room to play with design. Each student came up with a proposal, and the kids voted on the designs they liked best. However, “there were parts of all of them that we really liked,” Durepo said, so something from each art student went into the final design. Flowers and vegetables are prominently featured, “so it’s related to the garden theme,” Durepo said. The eighth graders spent their class period drawing the design on the building, and started to paint it, but - well, it’s first period and it’s getting cold in the mornings, and after a while all the painting got kind of boring. So the afternoon seventh grade art class has picked up the paintbrushes. Seventh graders were working on the project last week, adding flowers and vines, vegetables and grass. As far as canvases go, it’s challenging. “Have you ever tried painting on this stuff?” Durepo asked. The seventh graders will be in charge of finishing the project, Durepo said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.