Monika Winderl Big Sandy High School art teacher is impressed with the talent of the Big Sandy students. This month she chose two other students to display their art in the Mountaineer.

Faith Gasvoda enjoys art. "It gives me something to do besides regular school work because I don't really like the core classes that much. I've enjoyed art for as long as I can remember. She really likes working with color pencils, but the artworks displayed in the paper are oil pastels and watercolors. They are an art medium she hadn't tried before. "But I was really happy how they turned out. I love my cow." She loves animals, loves working with animals, so she will probably place the watercolor of the cow up in her own house. She is a creative sister. She also works with leather. "It's just something to keep me busy."

Art is both fun and relaxing for Faith. "It takes my mind off everything that is going on. It helps me to relieve stress.

She believes she will continue to do art, just not as often. She will be going to MSU-Northern, in Havre, to pursue Agriculture Technology, but she plans on taking art as an elective.

Ryan Roth is our second artist this month. I've watched Ryan in sports endeavors for years and never realized he had artistic talent. It felt good to visit with Ryan about art and how art has been affected his life.

Faith Gasvoda's copy of Van Gogh's "Stary Night" done in oil pastel.

Ryan says, "I enjoy art. It's fun after coming from a couple of hard classes. She makes the atmosphere where you can enjoy yourself and relax. You get carried away when you are doing an art piece, you look up at the clock and class is almost over."

I've done art for the last couple of years. He enjoys it, but he doesn't think he will pursue art once he leaves high school. Ryan will be attending Montana Tech in Butte, where he will pursue geophysical engineering. It will be interesting to see if he doesn't return to art someday.