Tuesday, Jul. 05 2011 7:58PM
An outlet for art, faith
By Julie Scheidegger, julies@lsjournal.com
Julie Scheidegger, the Journal
Creations student Isabelle Burton, 10, draws with oil pastels during a session with art studio founder Sharon Jeffus Thursday. The studio is located at 318 S.E. Green St., Lee's Summit.
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closeDanya McLucas, 18, said she feels like she’s been an artist her whole life. On display in her room, she has a finger painting she did when she was 3 years old.
Tuesday she sat in Creations studio, 318 S.E. Green St., Lee’s Summit, across from Richard Faherty, Tonganoxie, Kan. Two small poster-sized drawings lay in front of them on the table. McLucas, a student at International House of Prayer University, Kansas City, smiles as Faherty happily approves her first commissioned works.
“It was exciting and nerve wracking,” McLucas said. “It’s harder drawing for people instead of yourself.” Tuesday was the first time the two had met. The first time he’d seen the work. “He really just liked it. It was great,” McLucas said.
Creations studio founder and art teacher Sharon Jeffus facilitated the partnership.
“I met her by God’s design,” Faherty said. Jeffus and he met at a creation science meeting.
“I was looking for someone to do this artwork for me,” he said. “I was very blessed by that.”
The pieces are inspired by Faherty’s faith. One reads “Are you going to Heaven or Hell?” The other shows clasped hands with “John 3:16” at the bottom. He plans to display them on a sandwich board in downtown Lawrence, Kan.
McLucas, who wants to be a worship leader, is excited to do more work that incorporates her Christian faith with her art.
“It means something to me more than just a random picture of something – it has more meaning,” McLucas said.
Faherty paid $50 for both pieces and has asked McLucas to work on another piece for him. Besides the experience, Jeffus wants to get her advanced students paid work as artists.
“The economy is bad,” Jeffus said. “So many times they can’t get work.”
Jeffus feels if channeled in the right direction, creativity is a skill.
“If they are artistic and talented, it’s better than having to fry hamburgers,” Jeffus said.
The Jones Carnival Co., the company that runs the games and rides for Lee’s Summit’s Downtown Days…Streets Alive! event commissioned a mural by Creations student, Juliet Dunteman, 17. The company will pay her $800.
“She is so good now,” Jeffus said of her student. “She’s starting to make really good money with her artwork.” Jeffus works to connect people needing art and illustration to her students. People don’t have to pay professional prices and the students get opportunities to build their portfolios.
“They get experience which is really good for them,” she said. “You start small.”
Jeffus started by studying art at the Metropolitan State College of Denver, Southern Illinois University and graduating from John Brown University with a bachelor of science in secondary education, art. Jeffus said she taught art in public schools, wrote art curriculum and continues to teach workshops across the county.
“My heart is to do this with the kids and give them a start, to interact with the community in a positive way,” Jeffus said.
Her students, those 13 and older, she calls “His Lions.” Right now, she has 15 students, but she’d like to have more.
She wants her students, especially the youngest ones, to feel safe, happy and creative in her studio while getting a strong foundation in the principals and techniques of art.
“It’s not crafts; it’s art,” she said.
Jeffus also comes at teaching from a Christian perspective. She said her students don’t have to be Christian, but people should know up front that her program is a Christian program.
“It’s an artistic message from a Christian organization,” Jeffus said.
Recently, her students completed a mural at the City Union Mission, Kansas City. She wants the work to bring beauty to places that need it. Jeffus said there’s enough macabre out there. “I want them to do work that is uplifting,” she said.
For more information about Creations, go to www.visualmanna.com.
