Cathy Kline has been an artist all her life, spending many hours painting murals before developing her art gallery. Now, she is creating opportunities for students at the Cathy Kline Art Gallery.

Kline encourages students to visit her gallery and enjoy some of the art on display. She views art as a break from the difficulties of life and a positive avenue of communication to live a more joyful life.

“It makes you live a more abundant life. It just makes your life richer,” Kline said.

One opportunity to be part of the art is to be a model. On Wednesdays, artists come to the gallery to paint life portraiture and need a subject to paint. The gallery pays a model $60 per session. Some Park University students have already taken advantage of these opportunities, including senior communication studies major Johnathan Rizzi, who has modeled twice.

“I have seen it as an opportunity to build a community relationship between the art gallery and Park,” Rizzi said. “I know that the art gallery provides a good service of beautiful things. I just wanted to help Cathy out by getting more students to help her practice.”

Rizzi introduced Sophie Roper to the art gallery. Roper, a senior double business administration major in logistics and computer information systems, has modeled twice and said there are usually about six or seven artists who are painting, sketching or drawing.

“Most of them are just doing it for the practice, so some of them let you keep what they’ve drawn and painted of you,” Roper said. “It’s kind of cool to see their interpretation of you.”

During each three-hour session, Rizzi said the model sits for 20 minutes at a time with five-minute breaks for snacks and stretching. Rizzi and Roper both mentioned how comfortable the environment Kline creates for the models.

“It’s actually quite easy to just sit there,” Rizzi said. “It was keeping that posture and looking at that one spot that was a little distracting.”

Rizzi likes the fact that he is able to help artists practice their craft and get other perspectives on how someone looks, all while getting paid.

“It was totally worth it to spend three hours of my day to get paid and also to get to see a really cool picture of myself. It was really cool to see myself through the lens of somebody else’s eyes,” Rizzi said.

These opportunities for Park students have been a long time in the making. Kline’s early art career flourished in the form of murals, which she painted for her children’s schools and surrounding communities.

Once all her children moved out, Kline decided to further pursue her lifelong love of art. Originally bringing her art talents to Parkville in 2002, the 2008 stock market crash sent her back home. She eventually returned to Parkville, later moving into her current location at 8701 NW River Park Drive, located off Highway 9 across the street from Park University’s Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel, after her proposal was accepted in 2014. The building was constructed in 1889, and Kline said she enjoyed moving into such a fascinating building that was previously a train depot, jail and courthouse.

Since celebrating seven years at her current location last November, Kline is wanting more students to explore the world of art.

Kline is encouraging Park students to come in and visit her gallery. Prices for a piece of art range from as low as $30 to as much as thousands of dollars.

For those interested in purchasing art, Kline encourages them to start with an affordable piece and follow the artist until their budget allows them to buy a bigger or better piece.

“There’s no reason to go to a big box store and be satisfied with a print when there are thousands and thousands of those prints,” Kline said. “But you can have original art at home for less than what people think.”

Another opportunity for Park students entails creative writing for the gallery’s Art Story Show that runs through the end of April. Students can visit the gallery and pick out a piece of art that speaks to them and write a story about that piece.

“It has nothing to do with the real impetus for the painting but it would be the writer’s own story, their own interpretation,” Kline said.

The story will be framed next to the painting in the gallery. The public display of this project would benefit both the writer and the artist.

“It’s fun to write but sometimes you’d like other people to see it as well,” Kline said. “It would be an honor to the artist that they had selected that work to write about.”

The gallery will be hosting workshops for charcoal portraiture on Feb. 27 and decorative hand-painted eggs on March 5. Kline also offers personalized instruction on Mondays and will be teaching portraiture.

To learn more about the Cathy Kline Art Gallery, visit cathyklineartgallery.com. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.