The North Harford campus is known for its pretty landscape, including  the  pond, flowers beds, a greenhouse, and a host of other visually appealing things. The inside of the building is equally lovely, boasting large columns, a spacious atrium, and now a new painting added to the science hallway.

Mrs.Beth Brown and Mrs Kim. Harris assigned senior Meredith Parks the task of painting a mural in the science hallway. Brown had seen a picture of a 3D chalk drawing that Parks had made on a sidewalk and Brown thought  “it would be cool if I could make something similar for the hallway.”

Parks always wanted to make a mural and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to create it. The North Harford student had been doing art since she was able hold a crayon.  Parks said she “used to take a sketchbook to my sibling’s rec games.” Even though the artist likes all mediums, her favorite type of art style is animations and ones that can have an impact on people.

The mural Parks’ created depicts a rocket identified as Atlas V which launched coincidently the same morning on which the mural was hung. Parks and her sister, who works at ULA, find themselves speaking about rockets a lot. “I love outer space and space exploration and have always been amazed by the space rovers.” This passion gave her the inspiration to create the mural.

The senior worked on this mural in pieces and took over 18  hours to finish.   Parks adds, “I really enjoyed it, I’d listen to music and paint in my basement.” The mural was painted on a four by eight foot piece of plywood and reinforced with wood on the back. Parks used five colors of wall paint, rollers and brushes to create the painting.

The artist adds that she “definitely wants to continue doing large scale art work.”

Besides brightening up and adding color to the science hallway Parks wanted tell a message through the mural by reminding students “That no matter where you come from you can do great things”  and remind peers to always reach for the stars. Since this mural was displayed, Parks said she has received “a ton of compliments from all kinds of people…”