“A BRIDGE TO FAME”

It all started with a newspaper article and with businesses in the local community spreading the word, that the Puffin Foundation had awarded scholarship monies for kids at risk or with special needs, or from low income families, to take art classes from professional artist Lori Ryland at her storefront studio and gallery in Sandy, Oregon. Lori Ryland’s studio is within a few blocks of the ANT FARM, the local NAMI support group, schools, and the Clackamas County Mental Health Clinic. What started out with just a few teens taking art classes, has now developed into a full fledged art program for young people and teens, in Clackamas County. An art exhibition was held on October 4th, 2013, at loriryland.com ART STUDIO & GALLERY, in Sandy, Oregon, with a line of people outside, and down the street, waiting to be able to get in to see the art show, the night of the opening. This art program consists of photography, painting, and drawing, and digital medias from the Adobe Master Collection. Now scholarships are generated through the sale of the students museum quality oversized framed photographs, which can be viewed at ART LAUNCH for TEENS and YOUNG PEOPLE on FACEBOOK (look for ART LAUNCH PROGRAM FOR TEENS AND YOUNG PEOPLE) and on the artists’ website www.loriryland.com. We will have another art exhibition this spring and next fall. The mission of this program is to empower teens and young people to “do great things by developing their inner creative power while also developing their artistic skills and learning how to market their art. Teens and Young People are encouraged to “look for the ordinary” in the “extraordinary” and to believe in themselves and that “anything” is possible if the desire is there to do it.