RIVER FALLS – The UWRF Student Art Halloween show invaded the Art’s House Gallery Thursday, Oct. 29, for a brief three-day show. It brought it new energy, emergent talent and new twists to old ideas.

Instructors, Hannah Freeman and Dan Paulus accompanied the artists. The show featured eight artists: Emilie Boissonneault, Trid Branum, Ari Strand, Emma Atkinson, Zoe Paige, Kendall Smith and James S. and Jordan Sappa. The show features high-quality copperplate, woodcuts, screen prints, numerous spooks, and zombies modeled from clay; strangely, opossums were highlights of this show. No for sale signs are attached to any of these student art pieces.

In Renaissance times apprentices scoured the earth for raw materials and local minerals and then ground them down for the master painter to use. Branum explained how some students had been encouraged to go hunting for their own materials from rocks around the Kinni.  Brandum then shared how they had learned to combine those minerals with gum spirits and linseed oil to create paint. One of the students had located a rock behind Dairy Queen in Hudson that produced a lively shade of light green. Their new color was christened Dairy Queen Green. Boissonneault included three paintings that showed off this natural palette.

The Art’s House Gallery is located at 127 N. Main St. in River Falls. The Holiday Show will open Thursday, Nov. 12 and run through Christmas.