The artist-in-residence program wraps up Friday with an art show from 2:30-4:15 p.m. at the school. The public is invited.

The completed students' work includes a made-from-paper stream in which fish are swimming, displayed in the school hallways, positioned above the lockers.

The blue-green stream's currents carry words describing how the students feel about themselves, about school, about education.

"It's a stream of thought and a school of fish," said Naden.

With 180 students, that's 180 fish. Elementary students created the shapes of spawning humpy, or pink, salmon; high school students made chinooks, or kings.

Presented in panels measuring four-feet-by-20-inches, the finished work is displayed above the lockers in the elementary and secondary class wings of the school. Velcro allows the panels to have a quasi-permanent installation, allowing for easy removal if necessary.

Anyone who has ever attempted papermaking knows it is neither a simple project nor a neat one. Ensuring pulp was ready in the quantities needed kept five blenders working, equipment Naden brought to the school for the residency. Lacking an art room, Naden was fortunate to be assigned the home economics room — complete with sinks, counter space and tile floors — in which to work.

"Otherwise, we'd be working in a carpeted classroom," she said, laughing.

A five-minute break between classes required Naden to be a quick-change artist in order to shift gears from one grade-level to the next. Working with every student in the school and being a self-proclaimed stickler that every participant experience every part of the process required Naden to have the help of parent volunteers.

"There have been some outstanding parents. I couldn't do it without them. That's one of my requirements, to have more than a teacher helping," Naden said. "It's been like a mad scientist laboratory, but an organized chaos."

Fitting the project to each grade allowed Naden to delve deeper into the papermaking process.

"I asked the 11th and 12th graders, which are predominantly young men, how do I get kindergartners to get it and carry the same project over to seniors and not have it be a lame, dumb thing," said Naden. "So I threw them a little science. The negative charge of the paper and how dye is attracted, the chemical process, what you can do with paper, what is being done with paper, where paper comes from, recycling paper, the mathematics and measurements, examples of packing material, how egg cartons are made, on and on. You could see their minds going. They got more than an art class. That thing kind of grabbed them."

It also grabbed Naden.

"I felt like I had 180 (researchers and developers) out there," she said. "The kids are the ones that had brilliant ideas. They asked great questions. I really enjoyed myself."

In addition to regular school hours, Naden shared the makeshift papermaking studio after hours to any student wanting additional opportunities.

"I was doing a lot of cleanup anyway, so I opened it up for an hour after school to any child that wanted to work on their own projects," she said.

The project was supported, in part, by a grant from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional funding from the Rasmuson Foundation. Project GRAD and the Ninilchik Fair Association also supported the program.

"This is a perfect way to help support artists and keep them in the state, as well as promote art and educate kids in school," Naden said. "I don't have children of my own and this is a way of giving back. There's so much sorrow on this planet that this is a way to bring a spark of joy and color."

McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibben.jackinsky.@homernews.com.