ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
In today’s modern world, many aspects of lives have gone digital, and this includes the world of art.
At Liberal’s Baker Arts Center, work is being done to keep up with the times, and as part of this, the center now has a digital art hub for patrons, as well as classes taught by locals Toby Headrick and Amos Gonzales.
Headrick said the equipment for the program was made available through a grant from Kansas Tourism and locally through Southern Pioneer Electric. He said he and Gonzales are looking for more businesses to donate to the program.
Baker Director Misty Martin said these donations are necessary due to what it takes to keep these types of programs up and going.
“It’s ongoing,” she said. “Digital is constantly growing.”
Gonzales said digital art became available at Baker Arts because it was one thing the center was lacking. Martin said the program introduces a new opportunity in art.
“It expands that, and it gives an opportunity for people to express their creativity in another way,” Martin said. “There’s some really cool things they can do.”
“Not many people have access to it,” Headrick said.
“There are some free ones, but some of them have commissions with it, or they cost money,” Gonzales said.
Through the classes, Martin said patrons now have an intentional time to come learn a new form of art, and she added Headrick and Gonzales have made some graphics for Baker Arts’ social media pages.
“The possibilities are endless,” Martin said.
Headrick said digital art proves quite useful in many worlds, including presenting new opportunities in advertising.
“It allows you to keep up with the current modern world of art,” he said. “Advertising is one of the huge ones it’s very good for.”
Martin said she recommends the digital art class to small business owners in particular.
“They’re learning skills to help promote their own small personal businesses,” she said. “They can build their logos and brand their company through digital art.”
Digital art is becoming more available in other parts of the country, but Martin said it is somewhat new to Southwest Kansas.
“Having something like this at an art center in our area is a unique opportunity we’ve been given,” she said.
Martin too said the equipment Baker has for digital art is more than adequate for the program.
“The computers we have are great,” she said. “The technology we have and the ability we have to use the program we currently use and grow programs is a very unique opportunity for the community.”
Headrick said as opposed to traditional art, digital art has more finely tuned lines and deeper levels of detail.
“You can also work on way smaller or way larger scales with this,” he said. “It’s way less limited by the ability of your own eyes. With digital art, you can digitally zoom in, digitally zoom out, and it’ll keep the same quality. If you have multiple characters across multiple pages, you can just copy it over.”
The most recent digital art class wrapped up in January, but Martin said Headrick and Gonzales have already started the program’s next session.
“We’ve adjusted the time and day of the week to be a better fit for people in the community who are at work or school,” Martin said.
The current session kicked off Tuesday and will run from 5 to 7 p.m. every Tuesday for the next six to eight weeks. Martin said the classes have proven to be popular so far.
“People come every week,” she said. “They would come every Monday and work on a project.”
In addition to digital art classes, Baker Arts has many other fun activities for the community, including the winter session of wood carving with Darko Cohadarevic, and Martin’s daughter, Zoe Martin has drawing and painting classes for kids on Tuesdays, as well as a painting class on Thursdays.
Martin said the center has many things in particular going on in February. A charcuterie class took place Tuesday in the Baker kitchen, and area artist Jennifer Baffoe will be teaching oil painting classes this month.
“She’s an amazing artist,” Martin said. “She’s going to be teaching a class over several weeks time. That starts on Feb. 11.”
Friday, Baker is having a cupcake decorating night, and along with decorating cupcakes, Martin said patrons can have food, drinks and fun. Every Friday, lunch is available in the Baker Arts kitchen, and Martin said the meal promises some good home cooked food.
Baker Arts likewise has LEGO and play rooms in its upstairs, and Martin said Feb. 27, the center is hosting a wine pairing workshop.
Martin, Headrick and Gonzales are all excited to have the digital art hub in place at the center.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity,” Headrick said. “It’s allowed us to experiment with new styles we haven’t been able to try before, and it’s been a wonderful experience.”
“We want to be able to share that experience with the community,” Gonzales said.
