It's Monday morning at North County High School and Kim Everd is busy cutting her own stencils for a Jackson Pollock-inspired painting that could serve as a print for clothes from Urban Outfitters.

She goes to her teacher, Jim Dell, and asks about the negative space on her piece. Is it too much? What should I add?

"I wanted to do a zebra print. If I did it by hand I'd have to try hard to separate it so I thought the stencil would work better," said the 14-year-old from Ferndale.

"Yeah, I enjoy art and being creative. (Mr. Dell) says everything you do is art like drawing and stuff. I really like this class."

Art...