Student turns art exhibitor

These chairs aren’t made for sitting, not after Teiva Campbell gets done with them.

One of Don Urness’ first students at Cedar Grove-Belgium High School, Campbell, a 1993 graduate, jumped at the chance to impress her former teacher when he and his wife Eileen bought the old Belgium Town Hall a few years ago and turned it into an art studio.

Fourteen folding chairs came with the building, and Don found a use for them. He gave them to family and friends who helped fix up the building, which was in need of many improvements, and asked them to turn them into art.

The Family and Friends With Chairs Show was born, and Campbell has participated every year.

“As soon as I saw him open this place, I was in,” Campbell, who lives in the Town of Holland, said.

Art was nothing new to Campbell. Her father was an artist and musician, and her mother is a seamstress and does photography at Civil War reenactments in Greenbush.

“It’s just something I’ve always done. I can’t imagine not making something,” Campbell said.

The first chair she made had a cracker and cheese theme. The next year, it was a cracker and sardines, followed by a replica of the cheese and cracker chair done on a 3D printer.

This year, she wanted to get away from the food theme.

“I’m trying to surprise Mr. Urness every year. That’s my goal,” she said.

“And it works,” Urness said.

This year’s version is a chair decorated in dots.

“Each dot is painted on by me. It’s actually nail polish,” Campbell said, adding she made use of an accessory she didn’t need anymore. “I stopped painting my nails and I had all this nail polish.”

 She added a cushion to each chair because nobody else was doing it. The nail polish-dotted chair comes with a green monster. She planned on making a quilt into a pillow and determined it needed eyes.

That’s one of many examples in which inspiration can change on a dime — or dot.

“Sometimes, I just start and I have no idea how it’s going to turn out. Things can change direction,” Campbell said.

Works can take time. The chair took longer than expected.

“I gave myself eight months to do it and it took me two years,” Campbell said.

Urness, whose first year teaching was Campbell’s junior year, helped guide students in the right direction, encouraging them to explore their style of work.

One time, the class was doing still life pieces but Campbell was working on something else. Urness didn’t force her to switch.

“He told me if I did still life he would give me an F,” Campbell said.

She also makes jewelry often during open studio nights on Thursday at the gallery and sells her wares on Etsy under Faeriesmak.

The camaraderie at the gallery, she said, is helpful.

“You get to meet a lot of people,” she said.

Gallery to hold a fibers show next

An opening reception for Different Weaves, a fibers show, will be held from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday at the gallery, 814 S. Main St.

Artists include Della Nohl, who weaves  black and white analog photographs into reconstructed portraits; Sandra Achterberg, who connects boxes with objects and stories; and Alicia DeBlaey-Heisler, who uses old cloth to capture beauty.