On Tuesday, March 7, the NH Art Guild began painting their mural dedicated to the art department. This mural is the first of many to be created, and is expected to be finished by the end of the 2022-2023 school year, according to art teacher Mr. Jason Blevins.

     The mural is composed of multiple paintings, all of which connect back to NH in some way. For students who take fine art prep, there is a reference to the drawing of Igor Stravinsky, which is being painted by freshman Sascha Kendall and sophomore Lily Corcoran. For the students who take 3-D design, there is a reference to the clay houses and a famous piece by M.C. Escher being created by juniors Ryley Montgomery and Raye Roberts. Pieces inspired by the Mona Lisa and pop art are being worked on by freshmen Mia Siegel and Lila Edwards, and a pottery-prompted piece is being painted by sophomore Liz O’Brien. There is also a statue of David, painted by senior Marissa Struhar. Leading all of the paintings is a stained-glass hawk created by junior Emma Stoffel and seniors Ren Kramer and Elyse Friedman.

     Currently, the mural is only in its beginning stages. According to Montgomery, the club started officially planning out the mural “at least into late second quarter,” which means that it has taken a few months to plan out the designs and get them approved by NH administration. 

     According to Montgomery, the easiest part of the process was “definitely getting the ideas” together, while the hardest was figuring out the layout of the pieces. However, Kendall says that she “thought the hardest part was making the sketch on the wall,” as it was hard to get the exact proportions from the reference drawings. The rough texture of the was hard to work with as well. Kendall continues that the easiest part of the mural was “choosing what [idea] we wanted and the colors for it.”

     Even though the work on the mural is only getting started, it has drawn attention from many who walk through that hallway. Junior Tristan Armiger says, “I really like the [M.C. Escher] eye. Overall, [the mural] looks really pretty, I think.” Freshman Edwin Medrano agrees with Armiger and says his favorite part is the Igor Stravinsky painting. 

     In terms of the mural’s being finished, O’Brien says, “I think that we’ve made a lot of progress on the mural, but each individual piece is at a different spot, so it’s hard to say how close the mural is…to being finished. I think that some pieces of the mural will definitely be done by the end of the school year, but others may not be. Each piece ranges in complexity and difficulty, and some people are more available than others to work on the mural.”

     If students or teachers want to keep up with news about the mural, they can check out updates on the Art Guild Instagram page, @nhhsartguild.