Students transform Charlo through art

Charlo Schools gymnasium is usually full of well-mannered farm girls and boys, but last week, mythical beasts and creatures ran wild throughout its hallways. 

At the beginning of the week, the gym’s pale brown walls and the dozens of school children inside looked like ordinary classroom material, but the Ninepipe Arts Group’s week long annual summer camp took the theme “Art of Transformation” very far, as students, instructors, and the gym were almost unrecognizable by week’s end. 

“To me, art is 90 percent problem solving,” instructor Olivia Olsen said. Professionally she owns the Red Poppy, an art center in Ronan, where she also teaches art to adults. She also enjoys teaching children and thinks the youngsters benefit from the camp. She assigned her students to completely transform themselves from their heads to their toes into another being. 

Each student was given a cardboard box to start with, plus a pile of recycled goods that included gourds, a touch light, old recycled paper, and old trash bags. 

 “You have to figure out what you want to do,” Olsen said. “Then you have to figure out, ‘I have this piece and this piece, how do I put them together?’ That’s what this has been all about. All week they have had to problem solve in making their costume from their head to their toes.” 

The Ninepipe Arts Group has been putting the camp on for approximately 15 years, with 40-80 kids turning out every year. This year, the camp required students to make their costumes, art pieces and a backdrop for an end-of-week show for parents entirely out of recycled materials. 

Charlo High School Art Teacher Sharon Hertz was one of the instructors for the younger children who helped create a skit backdrop. Old fertilizer bags were turned into green sky and blue grass and land-fill bound cafeteria eggroll wrappers and egg cartons were glued together into elaborate flowers or ants. 

“It gets the kids very involved of every aspect of art,” Hertz said. “Because at the end they put on a production. It’s like set design, production, your artwork, being exposed to musicians and performers, professionals in the field.” 

Instructor Michelle Lambson worked with third, fourth and fifth graders and said that the kids had a lot of fun trying to breathe life and beauty into old unwanted odds and ends. 

“One kid said he ran here every day because he did not want to be late,” Lambson said. “You figure you’ve been successful when you hear that. They are having fun and they are learning to connect things that they normally wouldn’t. They are imagining.” 

Two other girls transformed themselves into companion creatures “The Wonder Green and the Super Green,” and looked equipped to fight crime on another planet. 

One student transformed into a blue elephant and took acting the part to the extreme, dressing in perfectly matched all blue clothing beneath the costume to get into character. 

One of the most creative costumes was a princess cow, with udders crafted out of gourds and mile represented by white painted bottles dangling from the creature. Its creator said that a cow had kicked her dog to death and she was trying to work through her frustration. 

Miriya Hurey-Acevedo took her materials and transformed herself into a black dragon. 

“I like dragons,” she explained. 

She’s attended art camp on several occasions. Though this year’s creativity ended with a presentation on Thursday night, students were already talking about how they want to come to art camp next summer. 

Community members can help make that happen by donating to Ninepipe Arts Group, P.O. Box 74, Charlo.