Looking through the halls of Oyster River High School (ORHS), there are recognizable blue green and white tiles stretching throughout the entire school from floor to ceiling. This year, the art department wants to add color and excitement to the monotony with a mural outside the lunchroom.
A mural is a large undertaking, and it was no simple task for the student artists enlisted. Throughout this process, they had to brainstorm ideas for a sketch, decide where to put the mural, decide what they were going to use for a canvas, gather the materials and project the sketch onto the canvas, and finally paint the mural. This process helped develop a variety of artistic skills and gave the artists an outlet for their creativity that will inspire students for years to come.
The process began when Maria Rosi, one of the ORHS art teachers, brought in Zach Johnson, one of her longtime artist friends and the person who painted the mural pictured above, which is now part of the Oyster River Middle School. Rosi hoped that Johnson would inspire the students in her advanced classes. “It was supposed to just be a visit.”
This visit inspired a much bigger project, one that took several months to complete. After Rosi and Johnson discussed a bigger project, they decided they wanted to see if the students were up for the challenge. “We organized the day the best we could to try to get started and to get the kids invested, and lo and behold, it worked,” said Rosi
The students were excited to begin this new endeavor and were happy for the help from Johnson. “He wanted us to come up with a concept, so we had all the freedom, and he polished everything,” said Miruna Dospinescu (‘25).
The students were excited to create a piece where they could work with each other, and that was part of the whole reason for the project in the first place. “We really wanted to do something collaborative,” said Maya Wilson (‘24).
Everyone was happy to work with each other, and it benefited the artists because they all have different creative minds. “It’s really nice because you don’t have to stress about making sure that you get all these parts perfect, because if something isn’t done, someone else will pick it up and finish it,” said Isabelle Alix (‘25)
The mural has multiple meanings, and each character pictured above is supposed to represent a different aspect of Oyster River. Viewers can interpret the art how they would like and find the meaning that is impactful to them. The artists hope that the mural positively impacts the school’s environment. “I hope the casual passerby to the mural stops to take in the sense of playfulness first and foremost. I hope then once they are engaged, they take in the story unfolding in the art. I hope they note each individual character and how they interact,” said Johnson.
Each of the eight student artists who helped with the mural gained experience from doing something that they had never tried before. Very few of them had ever painted something so large scale. “I feel like it’s more freeing to paint big stuff. I usually work on really small canvases and care a lot about the detail, and this forces you to not care too much about detail,” said Dospinescu.
Each artist was able to work on their own original technique while bouncing ideas off one another.
The key to this project was that the artists enjoyed what they were doing, and Rosi made sure everyone was having a good time. “She’s always saying that you should only work on it if you want to; she’s not going to force us to work on it. If you’re going to work on it and it’s going to make you cry, don’t do it. She wants it to really come from a place of joy,” said Caroline Allen (‘25).
Working on this mural has inspired all of the artists, and many said that they’ve developed their skills through it. “I’ve definitely become more confident with painting,” said Colin Caron (‘25).
The final design for the mural isn’t anywhere near the original concept. At the beginning of the process, each artist pooled their ideas together to create a draft of the sketch. From there, they tweaked it and added to it as they went. “In the first one, I think [Johnson] had a train in a castle, and then in the one that we’re drawing there’s a train, and waves, and a giant whale in the air, and it’s just really different but it all works together,” said Alix. Each of these elements can represent the school; the train can represent graduating and the water can represent the Oyster River it’s named after.
Before starting the sketch, each artist worked on their own ideas. “We all did our own little concept works,” said Allen.
Many of the artists mentioned how lucky they felt that they got the opportunity to work on a project like this, and they all hope they get to do something similar in the future. Rosi would like to see projects similar to this in the coming years at ORHS. “I would absolutely do it [again] if I had students that were willing to put in the time and the care that is needed for a project like this, and for me it’s all about the students’ enthusiasm.”
This mural will bring color to the walls of ORHS for a long time, and the artists feel lucky to be a part of that. “It’s cool that I get to help with something that could stay in the school for many, many years,” said Alix. The mural is projected to be hung outside the lunchroom across from the multi-purpose room near the start of quarter three.
Mouth of the River 