Winters’ Mural Bring Light to Portables

The new addition of a campus mural to the F buildings was a project that required lots of behind the scenes foundation and preparation. 

Senior Elsa Winter actively working with Campus Beautification Club created a mural on the east side of F building. She claims that the mural she proposed in August 2020 was “put on pause due to COVID and remained a possibility for the future, but not a project that could be executed at the time.” 

Mr. Hansen, the supervisor of the Campus Beautification Club was aware that Elsa had an interest in painting a mural, and they proposed the idea to transform the F portable area.

Elsa’s inspiration stemmed from a Zoom meeting with the club, remembering that “AJ Riebli suggested a Sun/Moon situation would bring together the two walls into one giant mural.”

The mural also represents the beauty and duality of the sun and moon, and was partly inspired by the Yin and Yang transition from day to night. It was chosen to also “merge the two F building walls together into a more cohesive project.”

Elaborating on the design formation, she says that it “went through a couple tweaks in order to fit the wall space and energy we wanted to create,” adding that she worked hard to make it fit when she, “sectioned the design into proportion with blocks of each wall, started coming at dusk and drawing the outlines using a projector, calculated the paint cost, and then began painting on weekends with friends.”

She shared that her favorite part of the project was having other people be there to join her in the process; “It’s  really inspiring to see people come together to create something so visually large.”

The aspect that made her feel inspired to create the mural was knowing that “it is important for kids to feel involved in the improvements that are being made on campus in order to foster a community feel at [the] school.”

In her experience, places that feel inviting and inspiring can “truly change [her] entire day,” adding that she “hopes [their] mural can be a source of even slightly brightening students’ days at SVHS.”

As far as student involvement goes for campus beautification, Elsa shares that “the clubs talked about possibly trying to implement a student led garden on campus, and want to create colorful, lively spaces where students can spend time and hang out.”

She adds that if a member of the student body is interested in creating a mural, she would recommend, “reaching out to Mr. Anderson for insight surrounding the artwork itself, and then proposing the design or idea to Mr. Hansen.”