As mural requests roll in from all around Clover Hill High School, Rachel Principe took these requests and made it into an art project for some of her art students. She selected students who were willing to dedicate their time to fulfill these wishes by creating murals on the walls of the 300 and 400 pods to help bring some life and color to CHHS.

Currently, there are three murals that are getting either created or finished. Rachel Kolowaski, Jack Murrell and Olivia Finamore are working on creating a mural of the statue of liberty in the 300 pods. Due to Rebekah Amato asking Principe to have a mural outside of her room that was government affiliated, Kolowaski, Murrell and Finamore immediately started on executing the vision that Amato had. The group dissected this idea piece by piece until they were able to come up with an image that catered to the wants and desires of Amato and the artists.

“I made the final drawing, colored it, got all the color schemes, and projected onto the wall,” Kolowaski said. “We had it where it was too small so we had to zoom in and do it piece by piece and align it properly.”

Through having a group of three working on this mural, they all figured out ways to divide the work and balance it out so that their different skills are exemplified. By selecting certain people to sketch, draw and paint the designs in areas that best fit their creative style, they were able to all contribute without becoming bombarded or clustered.

“Some of us may be in charge of taking pictures,” Kolowaksi said. “All three of us might be able to paint. Some of us might just be better at mixing or color matching, finding the right colors to use, so we all kinda balance our skills.”

Right around the corner, Tingen is finishing up a mural that has been in the works for over three years. From previous seniors working on the bookshelf and not being able to finish it after graduating, Andrew Brown, a teacher at CHHS, mentioned to Principe on how he would like to see the bookshelf mural finished. Principe came to Tingen to see if she would take on this assignment and finish up the bookshelf mural. Tingen took on the task of capturing the image that was originally installed but also adding in her own touch. 

“[Principe] gave [the mural] to me and I tried to make it make more sense: it was just the shelf floating in the air and then one window so I added [another] window and like the carpet and made it more comprehensive,” Tingen said.

Tingen has been working on touching up and finishing the bookshelf mural for the past four months and believes that it could be done by the next two months. Throughout this whole process of working on this mural, Tingen hopes to make it more detailed and cohesive.

“My goal from the beginning is just to finish it and also make it make some more sense,” Tingen said. 

To incorporate participation from the student body, Tingen added a sign where people could add different book titles so she could add each of the requested books covers into the bookshelf mural.

“It’s just like fun and I was also like students are kind of having a say in which books are going up [on the mural] like that really makes me happy and that so many people wrote [on the paper],” Tingen said. 

In the 400 pods, Xand Cotton, Willow Stallard, Audrey Hunter and Coley Frazier-Bestpitch are working on a mural of a chess board in the Math and Science (MathSci)  hallway. Due to a request from Nathan Henry and Rhonda Clopton wanting a mural to honor the MathSci program, Cotton, Stallard and Hunter took it upon themselves to honor this request. Throughout coming up with ideas on how they wanted to design their mural, they considered the idea of MathSci as a whole. As most know MathSci to be about math and science, they wanted to shine light on other aspects of MathSci such as the literature parts of the program.

“We wanted to do something for the math or English teachers because a lot of people were like oh math, science, math and science but it’s literature as well,” Cotton said.

After some time of creative planning, this group of four decided that they would like to create a chess board mural to represent their vision.

“So we chose a chess board because it’s kinda a motif of life and death and all the pieces, like our symbols, are from different books that we’ve read throughout the years,” Cotton said.

To create the mural, they decided to use acrylic paint to add their designs to CHHS walls. Just like the students who are creating the statue of liberty mural, this group had divided their work so that everyone has a chance to add in their own touch to the mural and work on the parts that they want to work on the most. 

“One of us is doing like the dark border on the outside,” Cotton said. “Mine is the like lighter border on the inside of the chess board and then someone’s gonna have the lighter squares, and then we’re gonna figure out the [chess board] pieces at a later date.” 

As time goes on and the chess board mural progresses, Cotton has shown their excitement and emotions that they feel towards creating their mural.

“I love this project,” Cotton said. “It’s really fun and I like being able to leave a mark on my school because I’m graduating but I like the idea that like, next year, freshman are gonna come in and be like oh my God, look at that cool chess board, and that’s gonna be there for all four years that they’re in high school, and I think that’s really cool.”

For Kolowaski, being able to participate in something that will remain on CHHS and will stay there long after she has graduated is very sentimental to her. Being in a position where her school trusts her to have full creative control and be as artsy as she desires makes her feel trusted and a sense of being heard. Kolowaski deeply appreciates having been bestowed with an honorable task such as painting murals which, most of the time, gets handed onto professionals.

“I think it’s nice how they don’t like hire professional people to come in and paint the murals because it’s a touch from the students and it shows, you know, their creativity with, you know, applying a prompt to a wall: it adds a nice touch to the walls color,” Kolowaski said. 

Tingen deeply encourages other students at CHHS to take part in creating murals around the school as it is a way to connect with their school and leave a memory that remains at CHHS and in their hearts.

“I think it’s great that we’re doing that, like I said, like making your mark on the school, especially like junior, senior year. It’s great to kind of like leave something [at CHHS] and then move on with it,” Tingen said.