Every morning, WS students gather in the sports lobby to hang out with their friends before school, and in between classes. Recently, students were faced with a surprise with the installment of the new mural.
The previously blank ceiling is now adorned with a colorful mural, and it wasn’t commissioned by a company, it was designed by a student: Senior Kate Sumner.
Sumner, who’s particularly passionate about art, was primarily motivated by the prospect of gaining more name recognition for her art.
“I wanted to get my name up somewhere in the school, I’ve always been seen as an art kid, always seen as a good artist. So I wanted to get my name out there more, I think the school would have been a great place for me to start on that,” said Sumner.
Additionally, Sumner wanted the mural to invoke a more welcoming school environment.
“Having artwork that’s detailed, colorful, and bright, makes students feel more comfortable,” said Sumner.
The people featured on these murals were inspired by real people that Sumner found on the online social media platform, Pinterest. Sumner then altered the coloring to better align with our school colors.
“I made a list of all the different careers that I wanted. I got pictures online of those people, and then I drew it on my art tablet,” said Sumner.
In addition to the depictions of people, the mural also includes a simple phrase: “It all starts here.” Sumner explains these words are meant to highlight the significant chapter that high school plays in ushering teens into their adult years.
“Everyone thinks in high school it’s your life right now. Everything matters right now. But high school is just the start to your life and the start of your career and your future and your life,” said Sumner.
“So it’s not, this is just like the beginning of our lives. It’s not the center of our lives,” said Sumner.
Sumner, who plays Softball for WS, was given a spark of inspiration after creating chalk designs during games. Her artwork caught the attention of Ms. Conte, WS former athletic director, and she ended up pitching the idea.
“I play softball for our high school team and we were having our senior night. I usually do a drawing on chalk, on the wall. I was doing a Spartan fighting a horse because that was the team that we were playing [South County] and Ms. Conte saw and she loved it,” said Sumner. “And then I came to her with this idea about a mural that I thought was way out of my league, never going to happen. But I brought it up and she was like, I love that idea.”
Sumner originally pitched the idea in the summer, however she had to go through many steps to gain approval from the administration.
“I had to go from person to person to person. I emailed so many people just like trying to convince these people. But it definitely took a while to get a thumbs up because of how many hazards there are,” said Sumner.
Sumner wishes the mural was hand painted instead, however the logistics behind a large hand painted mural proved to be difficult, especially with time constraints.
“Originally I wanted to do it hand painted on the genie lift that we had in the theater room,” said Sumner. “I was supposed to do it over the summer, I wouldn’t have had enough time to get up there, draw it, paint it and every inch I had to move.”
Instead, Sumner opted for a digital version, in which large sections of the design were printed out and adhered to the wall.
“There’s five different sections of stickers, and they added it on [to the wall],” said Sumner.
Furthermore, Sumner specifically chose the Sports Lobby for the mural’s location due to the large number of students that gather there each day.
“There’s that giant blank wall when you come in door five. It’s the main doorway for the students and when you come in, there’s just this blank white wall,” said Sumner.
“Sometimes we put up posters for events like homecoming. I thought that would be a good place to show off.”
In the future, Sumner wishes to create more murals to adorn around the school, however the significant time commitment and the lack of compensation is a limiting factor.
“I did want to make another one by the sports area, like that really big wall against the wrestling room. Yeah, although I wanted to do something there. But I’m also not sure because that would take a lot of time and I don’t think I’m going to get paid, so I don’t think I will,” said Sumner.
All in all, the mural is proving to be a positive new addition to WS by bringing recognition to a student artist, and improving the overall school atmosphere.
