When Hiudt heard the Cincinnati school district was discarding broken wooden chairs, she asked a custodian to retrieve them for her students.

"We're just happy to have paper," she said. "But the chairs allow them to be more creative. I, as an art teacher, take everyone's trash."

Because of squeezed budgets, art supplies are hard to come by in small schools like Jacobs.

Hiudt used her own money to buy other paint so the students had a variety of colors. District spokeswoman Janet Walsh said the school opted to put most of its resources in teachers and specialists.

Canvas was too costly, Hiudt said.

She decided to have students paint the wooden chairs as their art project after a successful summer school program where she instructed students to recreate famous paintings on tabletops in her class.

She was stunned not only by the art created on the tables, but also at the response from passersby who wanted to buy them.

She was even more surprised that chronically absent students began showing up every day to work on their paintings. And, that parents who never before visited her classroom came to see their child's work.

This school year, Hiudt crafted a lesson requiring students to research color theory, the history of their favorite paintings and the techniques used to create them. They will paint the chairs in the likeness of the paintings and write papers on their research. Hiudt plans to auction the chairs to help raise money for the senior prom.

"When I go to summer fairs and see chairs selling for hundreds of dollars, I think, 'My kids are just as talented,' " she said.

In the first few weeks of class, Hiudt again is seeing a change in the kids. Some students come to class early, leave late or come back during lunch to transform the wooden chairs into works of art modeled after Picasso, Van Gogh, Paul Klee or Georgia O'Keeffe.

Senior Charles Presswood said he initially didn't want to be in the class.

"I'm not good at art," the 17-year-old said. Hiudt protests, saying Presswood simply didn't think he was good at art.

Hiudt said she hopes to have the chairs finished by December so they can be auctioned before the holidays.

"I think it's a good idea," said Charmaine Harris, 17, who is painting her chair bright orange with green splotches after a painting by Jackson Pollock. "Instead of selling candy, we can sell something that we are good at. And other people can see what we are able to do."

To donate art supplies or buy one of the chairs, call Hiudt at school at (513) 363-7454.

E-mail jmrozowski@enquirer.com