by Chloe Kiparsky
If you were to walk into the art room, you might see a high schooler concentrating on their final project, you might smell the fresh paint a giddy kindergartener has just finger-painted on a canvas, or you might hear art teacher Melissa Demuth’s contagious laugh.
There is a generally positive outlook on art among the students of Ouray High School, and a diversity of interests within art. Ms. Melissa tries to make her room the most inclusive it can be. “I feel like there is an art medium for every artist and every student,” she said, “so that is why I expanded the class offerings to include many different art forms. There’s so much art that can happen and so much that I can teach students.”
Ms. Melissa began teaching art at Ouray School in 2019 and has built a curriculum for almost any art a student could dream of doing. There are 12 options of art media one can learn in Ms. Melissa’s class, and if a student has an idea that’s not on the list then she will help them with that as well. The most popular are ceramics, jewelry making, and painting.
Junior Nate Kissingford is extremely passionate about art. “Art is such a beautiful and lovely thing. It’s wonderful how it goes back to the dawn of humanity,” he said. “We’ve always been making art as a communication of deep emotions and ideas to each other or to ourselves.”
Sophomores Maryjane Cervone and Lily Feeser both appreciate the relaxing aspect of the art room. “I like having a chill class and hanging out and seeing everybody else’s art,” said Lily.
“Art class gives me a chance to take a break from actually doing work and assignments,” Maryjane said. She said she used to like art a lot more when she was little, but she’s been getting into jewelry making and fiber arts a lot more lately with Ms. Melissa’s instruction.
Freshman Catcher Latta says that he likes art because “you can make it what you want it to be.” Catcher is working on drawing perspectives and cars while also engineering a “homemade fuel injector to make flames spit out the back of the car.”
Ms. Melissa is passionate about art herself, and she wants other people to realize their own potential in art. “I do love art and I want other people to love it too,” she said. “I want students to appreciate their artistic voice which can take them in very different directions than they might think.”