IVHS calendar projects inspires wonder
From our weekly issue dated January 12, 2011
An historic Smoke jumper photo is portrayed in the scratchboard art style for the 2011 Calendar.
It began with a field trip for Illinois Valley art students and Evergreen students in 1998. The next year, in 1999, IVHS students created the first River Calendar with artwork inspired by the Valley’s natural surroundings.
Named after the Illinois River that shapes so much of the Valley’s environment, the River Calendar is one way that students in Elaine Barker’s art class develop skills while also learning to value and appreciate the area’s unique beauty and resources.
According to Barker, students have worked with Southern Oregon resident Jim Hutchings and the nature preservation group Fishwatch, taking field trips to different natural areas around the Valley to take it all in, turning sketches into scratchboard art for the calendars.
“Here we are in this beautiful place that’s pretty unique; people come from all over to study the geology or the flora,” Barker said. “There’s not a real large forum for people who live here to have that be part of their experience and appreciation.
To make it a formal experience where you look at where you live and talk about what it really has going for it is a good thing.”
To Barker, arts classes are more than just extracurricular activities because they also help students succeed in other school subjects and in life outside of school.
“It kind of combines the concerns of Fishwatch, but also for Hutchings, there’s a strong writing and art component,” Barker said. “For my students, it becomes a forum to do their best and have a method to put it out into the world.”
IVHS students have produced a calendar almost every year since 1999. Though themes focus on wildlife, there seems to be no shortage of diverse material for students. Barker said 2011 was the 10th year the calendar was being produced.
The 2011 picture was made from a photo from the Smokejumper Base archives. Each month shows a design from a different year: for example, a coyote staring into your eyes is the first picture you see for the month of January.
In other years, students have depicted the Caves Chateau, swinging bridge, plant life of the Valley, and of course, the favorite recurring theme: the cougar.
“I’ve attended national conferences and presented in several cities,” Barker said. “They were always interested in the calendars“I could bring back to the students the fact that it wasn’t just their parents who thought they were well done: [the calendars] were appreciated across the country.”
Proceeds raised from the calendar help allow some students more opportunities in art at school and around the Valley, including field trips.
Barker said she’s been a teacher at IVHS for about 25 years now, about half of those years with involvement in the calendar project.
She believes this fundraiser is one of the few where all the money stays in the Valley for the youth.
“It’s a practical product that’s good for you,” Barker said. “Everybody needs a calendar and it’s beautiful.
This is good for everybody, that’s why I stay with it.”
Calendars are being sold at Illinois Valley High School, but some copies are available the IV Visitor Center, Bear Images and Cabin Chemistry.
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