DATE: Friday, April 25, 1997                TAG: 9704240149

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 16   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CAROLE O'KEEFFE, CORRESPONDENT 

                                            LENGTH:   47 lines

PEMBROKE STUDENTS LEARN ART, GEOGRAPHY FROM MASTER PAINTER

While students at Pembroke Elementary got an art demonstration in painting teddy bear collectibles, they also learned real world geography and language information.

Pembroke was the only public school in Virginia to be visited by Taiwanese master painter Su-Mei Lin. She was in this country visiting six Hallmark shops to promote sales of Cherished Teddies, a collection of resin figures, designed in the states, but sculpted and hand-painted in Taiwan.

Arun Vermani, of Goody's Hallmark Shop at Pembroke Mall, suggested Lin and her entourage visit Pembroke Elementary for several reasons. ``A teacher there is a collector of Cherished Teddies,'' Vermani said. ``We have lots of teachers from that school who shop at our store. We wanted the artist to go where there are some faces familiar to us.''

Regardless, students got the benefit of watching Lin painstakingly paint a ``Sylvia'' figurine, the most recent in a collection of more than 600 different miniature bears.

Beyond viewing the art, they looked on the map for New England, where the creator of Cherished Teddies lives, as well as mainland China and Taiwan.

Tim Morrow, 10, and a fifth-grader was surprised to learn it takes about a week, or some 40 hours, to make a figurine at the Cherished Teddies Design Studio in Taiwan.

The students were told about how each figurine is conceived by Priscilla Hillman, an artist who lives in a small New England town. She draws the bear or group of bears and her artwork is sent overseas with sculpting directions and size and color indications. Sculptors in Taiwan follow Hillman's detailed instructions.

Artists, some holding up to eight brushes at a time, paint the bear figurine's clothing, patches, fur and facial details with oil-based paint. Since each artist is different, each bear is different.

The ``Sylvia'' bear sells for $15, but very quickly appreciates since there are a limited number and they are not available to all who want them, Vermani explained. Some bears signed by Lin sold for $15, yet shortly afterward were being bought on the Internet for as much as $185, Vermani said. Lin also visited Colorado, North Dakota, Iowa, Ohio and New Jersey. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by CAROLE O'KEEFFE

Su-Mei Lin, left, paints a Cherished Teddy while Pembroke Elementary

student Paula Ward watches.

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