C-H art students transform wall into work of art
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Michael Fulton, center, leads students in a mural project as part of his advanced art concepts class at Chartiers- Houston High School. Fulton said the class chose six masterpieces that blended one into the next to decorate a 30-foot stretch of hallway.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Margarette Russo, a junior at Chartiers-Houston High School, adds paint to her rendition of James Abbott McNeill Whistler’s “Whistler’s Mother.” Russo is a student in the advanced art concepts class.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Elena Sciulli, left, and Camri Andrews work in sync as they gently brush color onto cinderblock. Both seniors enjoyed working on the 30-foot-long mural as part of Michael Fulton’s advanced art concepts class.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Elena Sciulli, left, and Camri Andrews, both seniors, study their works-in-progress on a recent morning at Chartiers Houston High School.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Soft brushstrokes add to the serenity of Claude Monet’s “Impression, Sunrise,” re-created in the hallway of Chartiers-Houston High School by junior Kerrigan Pritchett. Pritchett and her classmates decorated the hall with famous artworks as part of their advanced art concepts class.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Kerrigan Pritchett, junior, and Michael Fulton, who teaches advanced art concepts, decorate a Chartiers-Houston High School hallway with renditions of famous masterpieces. Among those pieces: Claude Monet’s “Impression, Sunrise” and Pablo Picasso’s “Old Guitarist.”
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Juniors and seniors in Michael Fulton’s advanced art concepts class decorate a hallway of Chartiers-Houston High School with famous masterpieces, including “Starry Night,” “Persistence of Memory” and “The Scream.” Several students said this has been their favorite project to date.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Elena Sciulli channels her inner Edvard Munch as she works to re-create “The Scream” as part of a mural project at Chartiers-Houston High School. Sciulli and her advanced art concepts classmates spent nearly one month decorating the hallway in 30 feet of classic art.
Chartiers-Houston High School art students have transformed a cinderblock wall near the science wing into a stunning mural depicting some of the most famous paintings of all time.
Stretching about 30 feet long and six feet high, the mural took about a month to complete, and it catches the attention of passersby who stop to admire the artwork.
“I’m so proud of them and impressed with all of them,” said art teacher Michael Fulton, who proposed the project. “They enjoyed the entire process of the mural. Sometimes, with a large project, it starts off strong and eventually they get tired of it. But they enjoyed the entire process.”
Fulton said the high school at one time showcased several murals – including one at the spot of the new mural – but those were painted over during a school renovation project about a decade ago.
“I decided that this year, we should be decorating the school in some way, and I wanted to have the students have a large hand in doing that, and we decided to do a mural where the old one used to be,” said Fulton.
The students in Fulton’s advanced art concepts class collaborated to select the paintings, which are a “greatest hits” of art by artists including Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso and Dali: Starry Night. Persistence of Memory. The Scream. Impression, Sunrise. Old Guitarist. Whistler’s Mother.
The group made transparencies of the paintings, projected them onto the wall, and then traced the outlines.
Then, the art students determined who would work on each painting and got to work, using acrylic paint to re-create the artworks. The paintings, with dominant reds and oranges, blend seamlessly into each other.
“It’s my favorite project I’ve ever worked on. It was a lot of fun,” said senior Camri Andrews.
Earlier this week, the student artists signed their names on the mural. Andrews noted that long after the students graduate, their artwork will remain.
“I like that it’s going to be here a long time,” she said.
Most of the students in Fulton’s advanced art class have taken several of Fulton’s art classes, and lobbied for him to create the challenging class.
Fulton said the mural – and art, in general – “makes schools look less institutional.”
“Adding color and images around a school, adding paintings and posters helps to change the student mindset. They’re not locked in a box,” he said.
Senior Elena Sciulli worked on “The Scream,” and was excited to be a part of the project, which she found challenging and satisfying.
“It was fun working together on it,” she said. “I liked working with the group.”