Senior Shalonda Farrow took a different approach to her fibers class assignment and constructed a prayer tree for the community.

Farrow said she originally wanted the piece to be a memory tree for her and her family, but then the concept turned into something everybody could be involved in.

“Art is my passion, and I’m an artist,” Farrow said. “I don’t want to just take these assignments and just be doing them for a grade. So I was just like, ‘How can I take this assignment and make it more meaningful to who I am?’”

Farrow said she settled on the prayer tree concept after hearing of a similar concept, a wish tree.

“Someone had done a wish tree before, but I didn’t want a wish tree,” Farrow said. “I wanted prayers for our city, prayers for our people and prayers for anyone else going through things.”

Students in Farrow’s classes, members of her church and people who saw her creating the tree submitted the prayers, which are now on display outside the Fine Arts building.

Art professor Bede Clarke said Farrow’s prayer tree blew him away when he saw it.

“It always kind of catches your attention when somebody does (a large outdoor installation) because there’s a lot of risk, there’s a lot of work,” Clarke said. “It’s also so public. It’s one thing to make a work of art and keep it to yourself, but here she is, she’s made this work of art and put it out for anybody and everybody to see. That’s kind of a courageous thing to do.”

Deviating from her usual medium of photography, Farrow said she made and dyed the paper for the prayers by hand. The tree is her first installation piece.

“It’s really tangible,” Farrow said. “People can really touch this, they can read this and be interactive with it.”

Although the prayer tree differs from her normal medium, Farrow said the piece is interrelated with her other works because she uses art projects to seek out her identity and spirituality.

“She’s trying to make art that has a heart to it,” Clarke said. “That’s what I really liked about this piece, this prayer tree, the kind of purity of her intentions in doing that piece.”

Growing up in St. Louis, Farrow said art saved her life. She said she often felt like an outsider, using her camera as her voice.

“My camera was my protection,” Farrow said. “My art was my protection.”

Farrow came to MU as a photojournalism major, but said the major didn’t feel right. She then changed to art education and said she hasn’t looked back since.

When Farrow graduates in the spring, she hopes to receive a minor in fine arts. Eventually, Farrow plans to get a master’s degree in art therapy and a doctorate in education administration.

Farrow is now studying to be an artist teacher, someone who constantly practices in their medium and in the arts while teaching students.

“I want to be an artist teacher and the areas that I am particularly drawn to are those areas where other people don’t want to go,” Farrow said. “The places people are running away from, the places where people are losing belief in the students, that’s where I want to go because that’s what I had.”

Farrow attended an inner-city school and said she was inspired by the teachers she met there, some of whom she now considers family.

“My inner-city school was where I met the best teachers of my life,” Farrow said. “They’re still in my life, and I want to be that for someone. I was completely blessed with amazing teachers in my life.”

Farrow said she would like to apply for Teach For America and end up teaching in one of its high-need areas, such as Detroit or the Mississippi Valley. Her dream is to open a school that is solely focused on the arts.

“Art has saved my life, and art can save lives, and that’s something that I want everyone to know,” Farrow said. “Art is very meaningful and it is something that is needed in society.”