CEDAR FALLS - Teacher. Artist. Student.

The lines were blurred in frje Echeverria's painting and drawing classrooms at the University of Northern Iowa. Painting alongside his students was a way to open their eyes to the techniques, problem-solving skills and focus required of a working artist, and a chance for Echeverria to open up himself to new experiences and discoveries. He often used the classroom as his subject - the teacher as a painter painting painters. He was intrigued by how creativity happens and how to encourage it.

"I wanted to be as much in the unknown and unfamiliar as I wanted my students to be. As a teacher, I always wondered how they would respond to something I might ask - and what I would ask next - and I wanted to work so they could see an older person enjoy and explore new things," said Echeverria, a professor emeritus who retired from UNI two years ago.

"I wanted them to learn to see without telling them what to see."

Echeverria's extensive collection of classroom artwork is the subject of a retrospective, "Four Decades of Working Beside Students," now on display at the UNI Gallery of Art. The retrospective was curated by UNI alumnus Brad Covington and installed by Darrell Taylor, gallery director.

"It was time to look at frje's work and put it in perspective. It's recognition of his body of work, in context of teaching and mentoring students by example. This is just one aspect of his career, and is by no means a cross-section of his work or a swan song," Taylor said.

In 40 years, Echeverria has painted or created more than 7,000 works in various media, including acrylic, charcoal and mixed media.

"That's why I asked Brad to curate. It can be a big help to have someone with a good eye, who can not only look at the individual pieces, but see the connections and relationships among the works. I showed Brad 300 things and he got it down to 140 or so. Then we brought the collection here and Darrell did the same thing," Echeverria Echeverria explained.

Taylor whittled the collection to 100 pieces.

Felipe Ricardo Jose Echeverria was 18 and living in New Orleans when he legally changed his name to frje. In 1962 he enrolled at Florida Presbyterian College on a music scholarship. His direction in life changed in a humanities class where he learned "you can be everything you are." He decided he would take the next class the professor taught. It turned out to be an art class.

He received his master of fine arts degree from the University of Arkansas and began teaching at Buena Vista College in Storm Lake. He started teaching art and mixed media workshops at UNI in 1969.

His award-winning artwork has been exhibited throughout the United States and is in private collections and at galleries in Chicago, Rock Island, Ill., and Lanesboro, Minn.

Echeverria also is a classical guitarist and writer.

In his opinion, art is not merely expression, but pure investigation.

They are "the making of things that weren't in your mind when you started. You start with expectations but what happens may be totally different and that's wonderful," said Echeverria.

He liked to surprise his students, too. Once Echeverria herded a couple of ponies into a freight elevator at the Kamerick Art Building and brought them into his classroom.

"I wanted to use novelty to enhance the idea of paying attention. I regarded everything as genuine or important or real and tried not to think of it as an exercise. Having fewer preconceptions allowed students to respond more fully."

Echeverria continues to be prolific. "I just want to see where the work is going to take me, to lean into it and see what happens."