Hickory High students create murals to inspire reading at Snow Creek

The white walls of the Snow Creek Elementary media center have been empty for the two years the school has been open. When students come back next month, they’ll have something to inspire them to open their minds and perhaps a book.

“I didn’t just want to put posters up,” said Ellen Sigmon, media coordinator. “At first I thought about getting big windows and putting stuff in them, but I thought painting them would be a whole lot easier. I thought we could do different genres of literature.”

When Sigmon’s daughter, Caroline, heard that Sigmon wanted to paint windows at Snow Creek’s media center, Caroline wanted to paint one, Sigmon said.

“Then her friend said she wanted to do one, and before long we had five girls interested,” Sigmon said.

Caroline is a rising junior at Hickory High School and will be in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program this fall. Part of the program involves projects that specializing in creativity, action and service. All of the students painting the murals are rising juniors at Hickory High, and four of the students will be taking IB classes. The murals they’re painting will count as one project to fulfill their creativity requirement.

When Snow Creek students return in the fall, they’ll be greeted with art that is twice as tall as some of them. The five murals span one wall in the media center and each is six feet tall by four feet wide. There is one mural each for:

-historical fiction, showing pyramids, a Mayan temple, an ancient ship and Greco-Roman architecture;

-mystery, showing a detective with a magnifying glass examining footprints and bloody handprints;

-fantasy, with a castle floating on a cloud and a princess sitting on a cluster of mushrooms;

-adventure, with lush trees and vines at night with a cave in the background; and

-science fiction, showing Jupiter and Earth in two corners of the mural and an alien in a spaceship.

Although some of the teens sketched out a drawing of their painting prior to starting on their mural, Brenna Moore said she preferred to begin working immediately.

“I’m not much of a sketcher, so I just went for it,” she said of her fantasy mural. “I did a border and then did a sketch on the wall in chalk.”

Moore, 16, said she hopes the paintings inspire the elementary-schoolers.

“I hope the kids pick a favorite and talk about them and imagine about them,” she said.

Sophia Nassar took the opposite approach of Moore. She said she is more of a pencil-and-paper artist, and did a thorough sketch of her mural. She then projected it onto the wall, and is painting in the lines.

She selected the genre of mystery because she said it is one of her favorites.

“I like watching ‘CSI’ and ‘Dexter,’” Nassar, 16, said. “Ideas came to me right away.”

Although she was initially a little hesitant about adding bloody handprints around the edge of her mural, she checked with Sigmon to see if that was something that would be OK for elementary students. Sigmon said she thought the kids would love it.

Nassar said she thought it would add the extra touch of color her mural needed.

Mikaela Palma is the only student who is not in the IB program who is painting a mural. She decided to paint the sci-fi one because she thought there would be a lot to choose for her images.

“I always liked painting, and I just wanted to see if this would be something I wanted to do growing up,” she said.

The 16-year-old said painting something that is taller than she is has been challenging.

“It’s hard, and it can be a bit scary, at times, but it’s really fun,” she said. “I hope (the kids) think it’s fun and mysterious.”

Caroline said the murals have been difficult to work with because you have to stand on ladders to work on some of the parts, in addition to standing on top of bookcases.

“This is the biggest project I’ve ever done. It’s really different because of the cinderblock walls,” she said of the canvas she and her friends are painting on.

Caroline said she drew inspiration from her adventure-genre mural from Indiana Jones.

Katie Mathewson, started a few days later than her friends, but said she loves the historical fiction genre she is painting.

“I just finished world history last semester and it gave me several ideas,” she said.

Mathewson said she is excited to be involved in the project, and hopes the students will be thrilled to see them when they come back to school.

“This is something more than just I can enjoy,” she said. “I hope this will inspire them to read the books in here and try new genres.”