Rikki Nye, 18, makes a clay lizard for a public art project to beautify a part of the Tanque Verde and Wrightstown roads bridge.

James S. Wood / Arizona Daily Star

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The ingredients: 2,000 pounds of clay, 380 8-inch tiles and plenty of colorful glaze.

Then, in a large, adequately cooled room, combine the ideas of five art apprentices, an assistant art teacher and a professional artist to create a public project.

Mix ideas and hard work 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. weekdays at Tucson Accelerated High School, 7820 E. Wrightstown Road.

Once completed, display project on otherwise ugly pier under the Tanque Verde Road bridge.

Estimated time of completion: July 27.

That professional artist is Brenda Semanick, who is also a longtime teacher at Desert View High School. Semanick is overseeing the $25,000 project, which is paid for by the Pima Association of Governments.

Semanick is working with five teenage art students as well as one of her former Desert View students, Rebecca Macaulay, who is now a University of Arizona senior majoring in fine arts.

The project includes two traditional Hohokam designs as background and three large lizards crawling along the pier. One lizard will be nearly 7 feet long, she said.

Drivers heading west on East Tanque Verde and East Wrightstown roads should see the completed 12-by-15-foot project by the end of July.

"It's going to be beautiful," said Semanick, 50. "When I pass that way, I can see it there already."

"We went through a lot of different design concepts and just thought this one would really stand out," Semanick said.

One lizard will have a three-dimensional head that will peek around to look at people passing by, she said.

Semanick, a graduate of the University of Arizona, received the Tucson-Pima Arts Council's Arts Educator Lumie Award in 2006. In 2004, she was one of the top 10 finalists for Arizona Teacher of the Year.

It's a busy summer for Macaulay, 21, who works on the art project in the morning and then takes a four-hour class in the afternoon. Macaulay will be a senior at the UA, where she is also earning two minors, in Japanese and business.

The students Semanick and Macaulay are working with were selected from several applicants who submitted samples of their artwork to the Tucson Pima Arts Council.

One student, Caitlin Akin, 17, is from Desert Christian School, 7525 E. Speedway, while the other four are from Tucson Accelerated High School.

"It was a great opportunity to learn from an experienced artist," she said of applying for the position. "It's great to create art that includes Native American culture as well as a modern Tucson theme."

Akin said for as long as she can remember, she's been interested in art.

"I'd like to go into journalism, but a career as an artist is always an option," she said.

Rikki Nye, 18, just graduated from high school. She also has a longstanding love of art.

"It was just something I thought would be really fun," she said of applying for the program. "I didn't know what to expect when I applied."

Britney Smith, 15, is sure she wants to pursue an art career.

"I love art. I want to become an animator," said Smith, who will be a junior this year. "I've always loved creating stories, but I like to draw it out."

Emily Billheimer, 18, said the public art project is her second job for the summer. She said it's relaxing to work on the project.

"It's something that's always going to be there forever and that's pretty cool," she said.

A recent graduate like Nye, she plans to take art classes at Pima Community College.

Ali Sherrill, 16, said her art teacher at Tucson Accelerated encouraged her to apply.

"Our art teacher told us it was going to be contributing to the city," she said. "I thought it would be a really good experience."