Season of change

NEW MURALS TO GIVE MTHS A NEW LOOK

By Terina Papatu

The murals in the art and STEM hallway have been the same for many years. Over the past few school years though, there have been a lot of changes. Since this has happened, some students have decided to change how the school looks. Three groups of students, and one person working alone, are all contributing to the change of the school’s appearance.

To begin, the mural to the left of room 132 is being repainted by three seniors, Tatyana Drew, Mira Policani, and Logan Blas-Felarca. For a few weeks, this group has been preparing the previous mural by priming it so they’re able to start and finish before April. Next, junior Gilliam Brady is working on the mural above the janitor closet doors. Seniors Francesca Cali and Ethan Morrison are working on a samurai koi mural, and lastly, seniors Kerensa Suzara and Cleo Williams are working on a mural.

For last decade or so, there has been a mural to the right of room 132 with a large tree and an inspirational quote. It was decided by Drew, Policani, and Blas-Felarca that since it had been up the longest to their knowledge, it would be the mural they repaint. After they realized their first idea for the theme of the painting changed, they, with the help of a close friend, came up with a new idea.

“The original theme of this [the mural] was change! But, ironically, it changed. Our new theme is perspective,” Drew said.

Since April is coming up soon, Policani realized that even though it’ll be fun to work with two people she has been close with for a lot of her high school career, the mural painting process won’t be what they were expecting.

“It will probably take two sessions to sketch it out, then we have to add color, so I think it’ll be a while,” she said.

The group painting this mural had decided they wanted to make theirs match the mural across the hallway from where theirs is, while being different compared to all the surrounding murals color palette wise.

For Suzara, she luckily has a bit of a further deadline. Hopefully, the painting process won’t have her graduating with an unfinished mural. Her and Williams are almost done with their sketch and have had plenty of help since they began the project. “Honestly, when I first started and I had to paint over the other mural, I had to jump. That didn’t even get to the top, so I had fun with my friends helping me. Just taking the time to do something I enjoy, which is art, just making it in general has been my favorite.” Suzara said.

Brady is also working on the monkey mural above the doors to one of the janitor closets. He started this project in early December, after asking art teacher Nicole Mohs. While being in a class for clay, this mural is his final project.

“I asked Nicole to do the mural. It was an option for my final project and I thought it would be fun,” Brady said.

From when Suzara first stepped into Terrace for her older brother and saw the art and STEM hallway, she knew she was going to paint a mural there.

“My brother went to this school, so my first time being in the school was back in 2016, and I saw that hallway and thought, ‘One day I’m gonna paint in that hallway!’” Suzara said.

Along with Brady, Drew, Policani, and Blas-Felarca had their own inspiration. They weren’t settled about their mural idea of ‘change’ at first.

“We consulted someone privately, who’s a friend of mine, because we needed help making a new idea from the original since we weren’t totally set on that idea.” Drew said.

Suzara had been interested in Avatar: The Last Airbender since a young age, watching it all throughout her childhood, and it is still her favorite show now. When she was given permission to begin her mural, and after choosing a place that she thought was perfect, the idea her and Williams agreed on was the show they both shared a love for.

“The main part of the mural is the Air Temple, which is supposed to be the Air Temple after all the nations unify.” Suzara said.

In art, your inspiration or idea overall is one of the most important things to have. Luckily, Brady was inspired by a running joke him and his friends have had.

“Me and my friends have kind of had a running joke about just drawing monkeys, so I thought it’d be kind of funny if I just drew monkeys for the mural,” Brady said.

The people you work with on a project can always change the outcome of the project. Luckily for these three, Drew chose to work with Blas-Felarca and Policani. This trio has been working together for the past few years of their lives.

“I’m gonna have a heck of a lot of fun doing what these two [Mira and Logan] call the center part, because in my part I have to do a very detailed thing.” Drew said.

Brady’s idea for his painting was caused by a joke his friends have had running, but since he didn’t want to make copies of just one character over and over, Brady has had to make different characters for his mural. The monkeys will be surrounding one focal point, but will all be unique.

“My favorite part would be making all of the unique characters for it [the mural],” he said.

One thing that affects how people work is the idea of how others will view it. In these three cases, while the idea of how their peers will react is in the back of their minds, they’re all more concerned about how they want it to look and how they can perfect it to their own liking.

“Hopefully when someone walks past this they go, ‘Wow, that’s cool!’ Dwell on it for a couple of seconds, try to see if there’s a theme, then don’t kick the wall,” Drew said.

One of her partners, Policani, told how she has a sibling coming to MTHS next school year.

“I have a little brother who will be here next year, and I want him to be like, ‘Yeah, my sister and her friends drew that,” she said.

To end off their high school experience, Blas-Felarca realized that even though he’s done as much as he can throughout the years, him, Drew, and Policani can use this project as a way to share parts of themselves without being too personal.

“I hope it’s memorable, just something people will think about throughout the day. It’s like putting our story on a wall,” he said.

Suzara and Williams have also been doing plenty of work for the school as seniors, their Avatar: The Last Airbender mural, will definitely be a great addition to the murals. “I hope they’ll [MTHS students] enjoy it, some people have already walked by while Cleo and I have been working on it, and a lot of them seem to be enjoying the concept and just seeing people make art, so I hope they’ll like the final product as well.” H

“WET PAINT” sign to warn students passing through the hallway about the murals in progress, do not touch! KIMBERLY NGUYEN | HAWKEYE