NEWAYGO, Mich. — A class of high school art students will be creating portraits of local shelter animals in an attempt to raise money and get them adopted at the same time.
Jennifer Hurrle has been teaching art at Newaygo High School for about 20 years now. There is always a variety of creative endeavors going on in her classroom.
"I can have kids carving, I can have kids sewing, I have photography going on. There's just so many things and I try to aim all those projects towards things that will help them in the future," she said.
Hurrle does a community-based project each semester. For the last four years, her classes have been taking part in creating pet portraits during their first semester.
The pets in the photos are all shelter animals. Hurrle will receive photos of the dogs and cats currently up for adoption at Lake Haven Animal Shelter and the kids will work on creating portraits of them.
Hurrle takes the students through the technical steps of creating the pieces and the students decide on how they want their portrait to look.
“They’re just so pure and loving and they love unconditionally and I want them to be loved as well," said Megan Grant, a senior taking part in the project.
Once the portraits are done, they will all be listed for sale in an online auction on Facebook. The money raised will be donated to Lake Haven.
Donations to help pay for the project supplies can be made online.
