Artist spruces up Ruder music room

Ruder Elementary School music teacher Diane Volkman had grown tired of looking at the wide white blank wall in her classroom.

She considered painting it herself last year, Volkman admitted last week, but her husband, who knew Volkman's talent was in music, not art, suggested she contact the high school art department.

So Volkman got a hold of high school art teacher Brooke Nelson, who suggested that senior Melissa Livingston could paint new murals for Volkman's walls.

One thing led to another and Livingston went to work, creating four 4-by-4 foot murals, bright with color and musical instruments and notes flowing through each scene. Volkman was delighted.

Livingston began the murals in September and finished them a couple of months later. They were recently hung in the Ruder music room.

Livingston says she always enjoyed drawing as a youth but began taking her art seriously while in high school. She plans to attend Montana State University after graduation and then pursue a master's in fine art at Cornish College of the Arts, in Seattle.