Sweet surprise

By ANDREW MCGINN
a.mcginn@beeherald.com

An artist in Germany whose work has been exhibited from Switzerland to South Korea should, in theory, have little in common with fifth-graders in Churdan, some of whom have never even been to Des Moines.

Sometimes, though, all you have to do is ask.

In 2015, Tami Minnehan, the K-8 art teacher at Paton-Churdan Community School, reached out via email on a whim to Gunter Beier.

Minnehan’s fifth grade students were using candy in their still-life work.

Beier just so happens to have made a career out of painting candy — his hyper-realistic pop art oil paintings of translucent gummy bears and shimmering black licorice wheels in all their delectable glory have been gobbled up by the likes of Haribo, the German company that invented the gummy bear.

It turns out when working with candy as a subject matter — whether you’re a fifth grader in Iowa or a working artist in Germany — it’s customary to sample the goods.

“I always bought extra,” Minnehan said recently.

Ditto for Beier.

“I buy more than I need. Because I know the state of affairs,” Beier wrote to the students in an email. “The smell of candies or chocolate for two or three weeks just in front of my nose — I can’t resist.”

An unlikely friendship was born, Beier answering their questions and sending the students copies of his books and Minnehan sending him photos of her students holding up work inspired by his along with American candy. (Would you believe that a country known for its engineering doesn’t have Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups?)

The relationship culminated this summer when Beier unexpectedly mailed P-C a personalized print just in time to greet students back to school.

“I got tears in my eyes when he sent it,” Minnehan said. “He went through a lot of work to do it, and he’s not that into kids.”

Minnehan feels a little bad that Paton was left off the inscription — Beier writing, “For the students of Churdan with love” — but to a German, the concept of school consolidation in rural Iowa is presumably foreign.

Out of curiosity, Minnehan went looking for prices on Beier’s work.

This particular print was limited to just 50. Minnehan plans to have it framed and placed on view for students to see.

“I couldn’t find any information,” she explained, “which means it’s probably pretty expensive.”

Two rounds of P-C fifth graders have so far been mentored by Beier, and he made enough of an impression that the first group — who will be in seventh grade this fall — remember him as the guy who finds inspiration sitting on the toilet.

Well, that, and they also remember his advice on composition.

“I never knew we could get in touch with such a famous artist,” Emma Stream, 11, said last week.

Neither did Minnehan, who discovered Beier’s work at the same time her students were rendering candy in oil pastels.

“He responded to us,” she said, “which I thought was huge.”

Beier admittedly was surprised when he opened that first message from an art teacher in rural Iowa.

Then he was touched.

Then he became intrigued.

“This idea is very cool and genius,” Beier wrote last week in an email, “cause for the students in this rural area without galleries and art-museum it will be difficult to get in contact with art.”

“Tami’s project,” he added, “offers possibilities for the students to learn a little bit more about art: just talk to the artist.”

Beier, who doesn’t have kids of his own, now has inspired two years’ worth of still-life pictures by fifth graders in Churdan.

Hopefully their work found proper homes on der Kühlschrank, er, fridge.

“I love them all,” he wrote to Minnehan, “the artwork is individual, genuine and I am really envious of how your students find solutions and a willful composition — just by using candies.”

There’s still no question, however, who the master is.

“It’s really realistic,” Stream said, admiring Beier’s newly arrived print, “and it looks like he takes his time on it.”

The print may, in fact, have a price — Beier’s time does not.

“It’s invaluable,” Minnehan said.

She wants her students to know it’s possible to make a living as an artist, and that even if they can’t make it to the Pappajohn Sculpture Park in Des Moines, art is everywhere.

“I want them to know when they go to a grocery store,” she said, “that an artist designed that cereal box.”

Art educators like Minnehan have been bolstered by the concept of STEAM — a retooled version of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) that places renewed value on art.

At P-C, students in grades K-6 receive 80 minutes of art  education every week, Minnehan said. She sees each grade level twice a week.

But, really, why stop there?

“Art should be included in every social studies class,” she said. “We learn about history through art.”

“It’s important to understand this isn’t just a craft,” she added. “This takes thought and education and understanding.”

Unfortunately, few parents are thrilled by the idea of their child becoming an artist.

And that’s coming from Beier, whose father was an electrician and whose mother was a cook for the Germany army.

“Both were not amused,” he wrote to the P-C students, “about my intention to become an artist.”