Plains students show patriotism with paint

Plains High School art students got to show their patriotism and artistic talents at the same time by custom painting an American flag on an eight-foot long by five-foot wide piece of wood, finishing the project last Monday.

Five high school students volunteered to paint the flag on the wood for the Thompson Falls based American Legion Post 52, which usually uses the display to attract people to their booth during the Huckleberry Festival, according to Bill Beck, who made the original display four years ago. However, the board was a plain cream color. The display had eight rifles and two handguns, including a .30-40 Krag rifle from Spanish-American War of 1898 to an M-16 of the Vietnam War era. It also holds a 1911 45-caliber handgun and a 1917 Colt handgun. All but one of the guns are owned by Beck. The idea to have a flag look is that of Beck and post commander Ken Matthiesen.

"I was impressed with how well they all worked together helping each other as they saw a challenge or need," said Kristen Cole, the art teacher. "The board is 100% better and will for sure draw more attention," she added. "I wouldn't have given them this project if I wasn't confident they could do it," added Cole, a teacher for more than 26 years.

Beck, a retired Navy man and the post's chaplain, was extremely pleased with the students' work. "They did a magnificent job. It was beautiful. It looked very patriotic," said Beck, who added that the club might now also use it for the Fourth of July event in Thompson Falls.

The project was accomplished by seniors Piper Bergstrom and Joe Pullen, juniors Joe Martin and Romeo McCarren, and sophomore Autumn Leckey. It took the students about eight hours over the span of almost two weeks in their 50-minute class time to complete the project.

Cole's art students throughout the years have done numerous community projects, including murals on the E.L. Johnson Memorial Pool Park building, as well as making the county bookmobile design and the logo for Block Mountain Stone in Plains. For the Christmas holiday, her students paint the windows of businesses with Christmas themes. Cole said that requests from the community depend on the time it would take to do a project, whether or not the students are qualified enough to do it, whether or not it would fit their curriculum, and cost. The American Legion provided all the materials for the flag display.

"It was quite a project because they had to figure out the proportions and that involved a lot of math," said Cole. The students first sketched the stars and stripes on the wood. They made each stripe four inches deep and the stars were nearly three inches tall. Bergstrom cut pieces of thin Styrofoam and made stencils of the stars.

"We're painting America. It'll look a lot better when we're done," said McCarren, when they were about half way through the project. The stars were the toughest aspect of the project because of the detail they required, said Cole. At one point, four of the students just worked on the stars and blue field, and after they were almost done with the stars, Cole pointed out they were one star short, a mistake they easily fixed. The 2D art students did one color a day and put a second coat on the stripes. They removed 16 of the 18 brackets that held the guns - they couldn't get two of the small ones off - and Leckey painted each of the white brackets separately.

Cole felt they did an excellent job and gave them top grades for the work. "My hope is that the students can see their work up recognizing the difference they have made. I also hope they can see how important it is to give back to their community," said Cole. "Our high school students can make such a difference!"

In early December, many of her art students will be positioned at various businesses throughout the community painting Christmas themes on storefront windows, as they have done for over 20 years.