CENTRAL STUDENTS' ART SHINES

Colors burst from the walls of Cape Public Library on Sunday, forming delicate flowers and haunting crosses, crumpled soda cans and complicated kaleidoscopes.

It was an eclectic collection -- the best Central High School art students had to offer.

Judy Barks-Westrich, high school art instructor, presided over the show, conducted in the Hirsch Community Room. The display will hang there for three weeks, to be removed in mid-May.

Barks-Westrich chose the room for the display because of the almost daily meetings scheduled there. She wants her students to have all the exposure possible.

The art instructor came to Central this school year after teaching 24 years in Sikeston. She said she rarely reads the classified section, but searched through it last year, trying to find a new job for a friend. Central was advertising the art instructor's position.

Barks-Westrich applied, thinking she wouldn't hear from the school. She did.

"I've been teaching so long and have my masters, and it's so much easier to hire someone straight out of college," she said. "When they called, I said, `Now what do I do?' But I have been very blessed."

Under Barks-Westrich's supervision, Central's art department is more active, with students entering shows and working in conjunction with Southeast Missouri State University. The teacher revived receptions like Sunday's, realizing that students need to know their work is good.

And it is good. Six students were accepted into a recent art symposium at Southeast, and one was asked to design next year's posters for the event. Two students won honorable mentions at the Emerson Competition, an art show conducted at the annual district teachers meeting.

"These kids are talented," Barks-Westrich said. "I try to pull things out of them, and I usually get them. If I wanted them to do something easy, what accomplishment would there be?"

Rain didn't keep students and their parents away from a reception at the art show Sunday. They shuffled from picture to picture, admiring their favorites.

Sven Rainey, a 17-year-old senior in Art III, helped hang the works on Saturday. It was a five-hour task, but several of his own pieces were involved.

One, "Man in Red," is a large tempera painting. Black lines subtly form an angular face, and nearly similar shades of red make the features visible. "Boogieman" is a complicated pen-and-ink exercise in symmetry, but the time-consuming project was one of Rainey's favorites.

He will attend Southeast as a music major in the fall, studying violin and guitar, but he plans to take art classes during his college career. His consuming interest in fine arts is rare for high school students.

"If it makes me feel like I'm different, it's for a good reason," Rainey said. "The designs of an artist's pictures are unique, and they make people think about the artist and who he is."

Ben Swoboda, 16, is Rainey's classmate. Unlike Rainey, Swoboda will be able to take Art IV. The class wasn't available before due to low interest, but Barks-Westrich said she will incorporate Art IV students into Art III classes if necessary.

Swoboda was a freshman at Cairo High School, a sophomore at Notre Dame High School and is a junior at Central. All the moving gave him a unique perspective on classes and teaching styles, but painting emerged as his favorite art form.

His love is clear on "Air," a tempera painting of Michael Jordan done in white, grey and black. "Tempest" is a painting done in shades of green, black and blue, cut apart and then woven into perfect squares.

"In about the seventh grade, I started drawing free-hand out of comic books and off T.V.," Swoboda said. "I picked Michael Jordan for this project because I'm big on basketball, and he's my favorite player."

Even though she is only in Art I, sophomore Rachel Bettag, 15, was the only Central student chosen to attend an art academy at Southwest Missouri State in Springfield. For three weeks, she will live in a dormitory and spend her days studying visual art styles and media.

Her work "Going Up" was on display Sunday, a pencil shading exercise topped with a broken cross and single drop of blood.

"I like to do my own thing," Bettag said, "but I think having to try new projects as part of a class makes things more uniform and gives everyone an equal chance."

The art show will be open for three weeks, Monday-Saturday, during normal library hours.