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LONE WOLF -- You gotta want to come to Quartz Mountain.

You gotta really, really want it.

Buried in the far southwestern part of the state, the ribbon of narrow, killer highway leading to Lone Wolf, Oklahoma, and eventually, the Summer Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain, contain more twists than a John Grisham novel.

But three-hour drives aside, it's not the windshield time that's difficult.

It's making the cut.

Yeah, you have to want to get to Quartz Mountain.

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Somewhere, across the state, there are 1,032 high school students who didn't make it to Summer Arts Institute -- sure, they tried. They auditioned.

But they didn't make the cut.

Out of the 1,300 who auditioned, only 268 were picked.

The other 1,032 may have wanted it, but the lucky 268 wanted it more.

"It's tough," said Susan Herrick, a public relations officer for the Oklahoma Arts Institute. "We hold auditions all across the state and it's tough to get in."

At least the majority don't have to worry about the drive.

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Despite the remote location and the seriously tough auditions, students from Cleveland County are well represented at this year's Summer Arts Institute. Students from Norman High, Norman North, Moore, Noble and Purcell are spending the next two weeks neck-deep in drawing, dance, painting, creative writing and photography.

They're surrounded by others with the same desires and similar pursuits. And they're learning from some of the best artists in the country.

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The first thing you notice about 18-year-old Michael Lombardo is his hands -- long, slender fingers, short nails and dirty.

Way dirty.

Lombardo, an art student, has just finished a charcoal self portrait. He steps outside the studio, sprays the painting with a sealer to keep it from smearing and walks back inside.

His painting is striking.

His talent evident.

But it's Lombardo's use of intersecting lines which gives his work the look and feel of a drawing done by a much older and much more seasoned artist.

"I'm trying to get away from photo-realism," he said. "I trying to express myself. To send people a message and let them know where I was at when I did the work."

An incoming senior at Norman North High School, Lombardo is well on his way to succeeding.

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Megan Smith is barefoot.

She stretches in her chair, cocks her head and listens intently. At 14, Megan is the youngest student in her creative writing class. A fact that, at first, intimidated her.

"I was scared," she said. "Being with all these people who were older and who wrote so much better. It was terrifying."

But Megan didn't run.

Instead, she joined the 15 others around the large, dark table as they dissected a collection of poems written by their fellow students. Poetry, she says, is new for her. She has been writing short stories and trying her hand at novels.

"I've tried to write poetry, but I didn't feel it was very good," she said. "I've been more focused on fantasy novels." That may be, but at this point, the work of the day is poetry and Meagan is well-prepared for the read-a-round.

She offers her suggestions, listens and readies herself for more writing.

"It's inspirational here," she says. "It feels creative."

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Maybe that's the whole idea.

Bring a group of talented, artistic kids together, expose them to some of the best artists in the country and plant a few seeds in the process. It's a recipe that's worked well for more than 30 years.

But it's not cheap.

Two weeks' room and board at one of the state's newest lodges, pay for the instructors and staff, and all those incidentals add up.

But institute officials say that each student accepted to the institute automatically receives a full scholarship to the program.

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By late afternoon, the temperature has reached the small inferno level and most of the day's classes are over. Dinner is almost ready and the staff and students drift slowly toward the big dining hall.

Ahead of me one student with a camera pauses for one more photo -- only he knows if the image truly captures what he's trying to say. But even if he doesn't succeed this time, he still has more than a week to prefect his skills.

Yeah, you gotta want to come to Quartz Mountain.

M. Scott Carter 366-3545 scarter@normantranscript.com