Using her artistic ability to help pay for the installation of someone else’s art at Albert Lea High School, Hawthorne Elementary School art teacher Paula Prescott is selling notecards and prints of her painting of the high school at Andersen Hallmark stores.

&uot;We are trying to raise money to pay for the (high school) sculpture

project,&uot; said Prescott. &uot;Even though we have received a lot of generous donations we need more.&uot;

The project is a wall-mural-type abstract sculpture, which was designed by southern Minnesota artist Mark Hall. The Comprehensive

Art Planning Program (CAPP) Team decided that they would ask Hall to put the sculpture in the new high school along the wall in the entrance hall.

Prescott made a watercolor painting of the new high school in order to raise money for the sculpture project. The painting is a view

of the building from across the pond on the west side of the school.

Prescott said the CAPP team needs to raise $25,000 more to pay for the project, and all of the expenses so far have been paid for by outside funding.

The school sculpture is not yet complete. Iron-welded pieces line the wall. The pieces look a bit like shapes of micro-organisms under a

microscope. Some of the shapes have been filled with glass pieces, kiln-formed glass, wrought iron, stamped metal, ceramic and art glass

and many other materials.

Many of these filler materials have been made by local residents, high school students, and businesses around the area. The artist has been intent on including the community, according to Prescott.

The sculpture will be fully installed on Oct. 14.

Prescott said she hopes to raise money to pay for the project over the next few weeks. Selling 3-by-5-inch notecards, as well as larger prints, at the Anderson Hallmark stores in the area.

She hopes the fund raiser will do well. &uot;I am just hoping to put some money towards the project,&uot; she said. &uot;We still have a bit farther to go.&uot;