The Jimmy Furlow Senior Citizen Center offers a lot of thingsfor area seniors, but the most recent addition will give artists achance to learn from a local celebrity.

Center Director Nancy Ray said local artist Tony Biagi will teachan art class starting Tuesday, and area seniors who take it arelikely to learn all kinds of things.

“We chose him because he’s a local artist who’s nationallyrecognized,” she said. “And it won’t be just drawing and painting,he does sculptures, he does every medium imaginable.”

And Biagi said he’s excited about the chance to put the classtogether. Already he’s got an idea of all sorts of knowledge hewants to impart.

“I’m going to teach them some landscapes, some still lifes, thenbasically some individual single item things, like a rose orsomething like that,” he said. “I’ll give them all-around differentthings in other words. We’ll start off with pencil graphite andI’ll teach them to draw and show them a lot of little tricks andneat things.”

The first day of the class is Tuesday, with the class starting at10 a.m. It should take about two hours, Biagi said. During thattime, Ray said class members will help dictate the schedule.

Biagi said art is often something that some people are naturallyinclined toward, but whether they are or not, it’s always fun tolearn.

“If you’ve always enjoyed looking at art and it’s stayed with you,the Lord may have given you a talent, and you never know until youtry,” he said.

Ray said people have already expressed their excitement about theclass, and about having Biagi as their teacher.

“People have recognized his name and his work. That’s one reason wewanted to get him in here,” she said. “People have great respectfor his work, and we have several pieces of his work on displaynow, and we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on that.”

And Biagi said he sees this as his chance to give back to the worldand pass on some ideas and talents.

“Over the years, I’ve taught over 100 people how to draw andpaint,” he said. “It’s been a while since I did that, but I’m oldernow and can give back something the Lord gave me and pass it on tosome other people who can enjoy doing it at night or weekends orwhenever they want to.”

Ray said the cost for the class is $20, which will pay Biagi’s fee.Meanwhile, Biagi said the payoffs can be endless.

“This is something for seniors who may be retired, it’s somethingto do that’s worthwhile,” he said. “They can do drawing andpainting for Christmas gifts or to decorate their house.”

For more information on the class, call the Jimmy Furlow SeniorCitizen Center at 601-835-5076.