Pupils paint silhouettes on Evans Middle mural
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Eighth-graders at Evans Middle School work on a mural in the school gym.
Photo by Donnie Fetter
Most teachers would scoff at the thought of pupils painting on the walls of their school.
Evans Middle School art teacher Mary Harris not only embraced the idea recently but also turned it into a class project.
After a row of bleachers at the Evans Middle gym was recently removed, Harris decided to brighten up the vacated space, having her eighth-grade pupils in her art class paint a wall mural where the bleachers were located.
"When they took the bleachers out, it just seemed so drab," Harris said. "I asked my students if they'd like to paint in the gym, and, of course, they said, 'Yeah.'"
The 22 art pupils recently completed painting their silhouettes on the gym wall.
Each pupil laid down on a piece of large paper while their classmates traced their outline.
They then cut out the silhouette, put the paper up against the wall and filled in the image using black acrylic paint.
Two weeks ago, the pupils went to the gym to paint over some of the black images with silver and gold acrylic paint. Black, silver and gold are the school's colors.
Evans Middle School eight-graders Stanton Royer, 14, and Carissa Coule, 13, work on a mural in the school's gym.Art teacher Mary Harris came up with the idea for the mural after a set of bleachers was removed from the gym.
Photo by Donnie Fetter
"I think it's cool that my image is going to be on the wall," 14-year-old Shannon Tarris said.
"It's a cool class when you get to paint yourself on a gym wall," Allen Nelson, 13, said.
Unfortunately, the images will eventually be rendered to rubble.
The school, located at the corner of Washington and Belair roads, is scheduled to be relocated in 2006, and the existing school will be torn down to make way for a shopping center.
"Well, we'll have it there for the next two years," Allen said.
In the meantime, Allen said the pupils were afforded the rare opportunity to paint a mural.
"I like it because I've never been able to paint a mural before," said Zack Jackson, 13.
"It's a way to show pride in our school," said Jana Dionisio, 14.