Eighth-grader Debra Santos recreates Edvard Munch's "The Scream" with generous strokes of her paintbrush in her art class.

At the neighboring table, Mike Mesch adds sopping wet paper to the arm of a paper mache sculpture.

In another corner of the room Ben Swegle and Deven Leidall, mold the "Dukes of Hazard" 69 Dodge Charger out of clay.

These projects and many more are part of Lisa Tollefson-Larson's art class and part of a art display at Ellis Middle School that will change and rotate even after the students move on to high school.

Art Around Ellis allows students to display their artwork throughout the school. Traditionally, Ellis has held an art show in January, but scheduling conflicts and the weather sometimes prevented people from seeing the projects the students created.

"All this work went into it and nobody saw it," Tollefson-Larson said.

Tollefson-Larson has been thinking about displaying the student's art work for quite some time, but finally decided to implement it this year. Some projects imitate a famous piece of art, others are functional.

Juanita Mendoca, an eight grader, painted the top of a stool with colors resembling the sun and the sky. The stools will be used in the art classes. The school has ordered more of the same model for future students to paint as well.

"It's not one class, it's an ongoing project," Tollefson-Larson said.

Paper mache sculptures also will be placed throughout the school. The students worked on two sculptures of students Tuesday, which will hold books and be placed in the library.

Other students are imitating a work of art by an artist who intrigued them.

Trevor Kolb saw a program about Leonardo Di Vinci on the History channel and was interested in the theory that the Mona Lisa is a feminine self-portrait of Di Vinci.

He spent his art class recreating the Mona Lisa from photo to onto a large canvass.

His classmate, Santos, was doing the same for "The Scream." She said art is just a hobby, but one she enjoys.

"I like the way it catch your eye, all the colors it uses," Santos said. "And it gives you a way to show your emotions."

These recreations of artwork will be displayed throughout the school with a short biography of the artist below. The walls in the hallways have been prepared to hang the paintings. Since the canvasses are the same size, they can be moved to different areas of the school.

"We'll keep adding to and rotating the show," Tollefson-Larson said.

A half dozen students sat around a table painting pieces of mini-blinds in blue, red, yellow and orange. The blinds will be strung together to form a wind chime that will hang from a ceiling in the school.

"It will be an upside-down rainbow on the ceiling," said Heidi Haugen, an eighth grader.

The class project also allows the students to learn the mathematics involved in art. One of the projects the students make, called tessellations, is also a graduation standard project for their math requirement. The students create an ongoing pattern in art class and learn about its geometric properties in math.

"They come in from an art perspective," Tollefson-Larson said.

Tollefson-Larson and the students hope to have their artwork displayed by the end of next week.

"I think it's good because people have a chance to see what's actually going on in the school," Santos said.

Cari Quam can be reached at 434-2235 or by e-mail at :mailto:cari.quam@austindailyherald.com