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FeaturesJuly 16, 2010

Covering the arts and keeping up with the artists in town sometimes sucks me down the colorful rabbit hole of creativity. I slip to the other side and wander aimlessly around the art world until I wake up and realize I should stick to reality and writing...

Covering the arts and keeping up with the artists in town sometimes sucks me down the colorful rabbit hole of creativity. I slip to the other side and wander aimlessly around the art world until I wake up and realize I should stick to reality and writing.

The artistic endeavors are always fun, though, and here's a well-known secret: You can enjoy them, too.

Work with the Empty Bowls Project, now in its fifth year, never stops. Like clay on a potter's wheel, the people directly involved with it continuously shape and plan and arrange the event and all its features.

Empty Bowls is a yearly fundraiser that raises money for local food banks by offering a modest meal -- usually cooked by nutrition students at Southeast Missouri State University -- and a handmade clay bowl for patrons to take home. This year's banquet will be Nov. 14 and benefit the Salvation Army.

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I've seen the bowls in offices, homes and given as Christmas gifts. They vary in size, shape, pattern and color, and therefore fit in almost anyone's life.

Some that will appear this year are themed with snowmen or a poinsettia painted by a Best of Missouri Hands artist at the group's annual conference. Most bowls are painted right in the Garden Gallery, 835 Broadway, like the little blue bowl with a purple octopus in it or my own two sad creations.

I always have grand plans and high hopes. Like my bowl of various shades of green, stamped with ginkgo leaves that I hoped would be bright yellow but turned out more like the inconsistent greenish-yellow color of phlegm in allergy season. I kept my second bowl simple with a pink-and-yellow color scheme, perfect for a toddler's room where it can get broken.

The point here is if I can do it, you can do it.

The Garden Gallery has bowls and paint for budding artists from noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday to Friday and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday.

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