PORTRAIT OF TWO ARTISTS

Judy Barks-Westrich works with found objects and natural fibers as displayed in this piece that will be on display at Gallery 100.

Judy Barks-Westrich showed examples of her students' work during class. She has been teaching art at Cape Central High School for three years.

Robert Friedrich works in free-form pottery as well as wood and metal sculpture.

Robert Friedrich doesn't like his students to take art too literally.

"Since I kind of work a lot in abstract and non-objective, I like to teach a lot of that in my classes, especially in Art I," said Friedrich, a second-year teacher at Cape Central High School and an artist in his own right.

Many students are taking art just to have an art elective, he says. "A lot of them have somehow dropped off the creative path. They don't draw as they used to.

"When they come into my class I don't want them to draw realistic pictures."

Non-objective art "really draws on their creativity. It's purely theirs. It's not from a magazine. It's not something they can copy from a picture."

Friedrich and fellow Central High teacher Judy Barks-Westrich will have a chance to show their versions of the abstract and non-objective when they share an exhibit at Gallery 100, in its new location at 119 Independence St., beginning Friday and continuing through March 29.

The opening reception for the exhibit will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday. The gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

The exhibit will include a little bit of everything by both artists: Barks-Westrich's signature woven pieces, collages and basketry, and Friedrich's ceramic pieces, wood and metal assemblages and several prints.

Barks-Westrich's exhibited works are "textural pieces, and in many cases contrasting different textures as well as plant, animal and manmade materials into one piece," she said.

When she earned her master's degree in 1978, her thesis was on Indian basketry.

"That sort of got me started in the area of textures and natural materials," she said.

Barks-Westrich has been teaching art for 25 years, the last two at Cape Central. She previously taught in Sikeston.

"My greatest interest is weaving texture and design, and because of that I do push a lot of design work, a lot of non-objective, abstract design," she said. "I do push for a lot of textural effect in the artwork."

She teaches Art I through Art IV, which includes drawing, painting, design, and two- and three-dimensional art.

She said it's often easier to get students to work with abstract designs "and to get them to understand how the elements and principles of art work together to create a good piece of artwork."

There is a place in art education for teaching students to copy other pictures, Barks-Westrich said, "but I'm more after the creativity effect."

Friedrich teaches Art I and II, pottery and art history.

"These are the same students who go to museums and say, I can do that," he said. "When they do it in my class, they find out how much of a process there is as far as creating abstracts."

Last week, Friedrich was glazing and preparing to fire some of the ceramic pieces he will be exhibiting at Gallery 100.

His works are inspired by organic forms, he said, including tree root systems and trunks.

"The shape and the form of it's real natural and organic," Friedrich he said.

He especially enjoys three-dimensional works. "A lot of shows tend to be weak in the sculpture area," he said.

"I always like pieces that you can walk around or view from all different angles. As you walk around, the piece changes into a totally different piece," he said. "That's probably the reason I like it in art, and probably the reason I like those pieces in my grouping," he said.

Barks-Westrich said people who look at her work probably notice how she contrasts textures and includes a lot of plant and animal materials.

"I may work with hides and fur and bone and feathers and unusual things that people might look at and say, Ooh, that's neat. But I take it and try to stick it into something and put it on the wall."