Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990 TAG: 9003082060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: YOLETTE NICHOLSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Willard Gayheart, a grandfatherly looking artist, set up residence in the school's art room, which has been converted into an art studio and gallery displaying his drawings.
Gayheart's presence elicited a lot of excitement from the school administration, faculty and students.
"I don't know who has been most enthralled - the parents, the teachers or the students. Everyone is very excited to have him here," said Connie Stone, a reading teacher at West Salem Elementary.
Stone is a member of the Heritage Committee, which created the artist-in-residence project. The committee, a diverse group of teachers who are trying to introduce children to their heritage, saw Gayheart perform at a fraternity banquet for school educators in Roanoke County and invited him and other craftsmen to the school for Heritage Day last spring.
Gayheart established such a strong rapport with the students, captivating them with his art, music and storytelling abilities, that the teachers asked him to participate in the project.
"He has such a calm, wonderful nature with the children. He mesmerizes them. He has them just eating out of the palm of his hand," learning disabilities teacher Sheila Barber says.
The school applied for a grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts to help pay for the project. Two-thirds of Gayheart's salary was funded by the grant. The school's PTA helped sponsor the rest.
Gayheart's talents helped further the educational goals of the project.
"As he weaves these stories with the children, he's using his art and he's using his music and the children can see how it all comes together," Stone said.
"We don't want the children to see any one subject area as isolated. They all work together and I think he demonstrates that to the children."
Gayheart said he starts his classes by telling the students about himself and his background, how he got started in art and why. The students then get a chance to ask him questions.
"The whole period could be taken up with their questions," Gayheart says with a smile. "What kind of pencils I use, how long it takes me to do a drawing, how much I sell them for. There's just no end to the questions that they can think to ask, and that makes it very interesting."
Gayheart said they spend the last 10 minutes of class singing songs together.
"We sing ballads or folk songs that we have in common, that I used to sing when I was a little boy in Eastern Kentucky and that they sing here today," he says. "I try to show them how art and music are connected along with the Appalachian culture, which we are all a part of."
Gayheart encourages students to use art as a means of expression.
"It's a good way to express themselves in whatever way they see fit," he said. "But those who have a strong desire to be an artist should go ahead and do it." Gayheart needed similar encouragement when he was thinking about becoming an artist full time. Barber, a longtime friend, remembers his indecision.
"He was a store manager and he had always wanted to draw but had never really gotten into it," she said. "At first he said he wasn't sure he could do this and be what he wanted to be, but with a lot of encouragement from a lot of folks, we bragged on his work, pieces began to sell and his self-confidence began to develop."
Gayheart now sells his work at arts and crafts festivals and runs a frame shop on the side. He says the artist-in-residence project was a wonderful opportunity for him.
"This is such a nice school, the teachers are spoiling me rotten. My wife will never get me straightened out," he chuckles. "It's been a wonderful week."
by CNB