WILLIAMSTOWN - A drab classroom setting has received an infusion of color thanks to a group of art students.
Williamstown High School art teacher Debbie Gerhold Shively said she'd been considering some kind of public service project for students in her Art III and Advanced Placement Art class. As it turned out, they didn't have to look far.
"The teacher that's in the room this year felt the room was a little bit bland and wanted to add some color and excitement," Shively said.
Article Photos
EVAN BEVINS The Marietta Times
Williamstown High School Art III and AP Art students, from left, Avery Goff, Jack Folwell, Wyatt Snider, Myranda Hinton and Luke Flanagan put the finishing touches on a mural in math teacher Alan Yoak’s classroom Tuesday.
Some of the art students - three seniors and two juniors - have had classes in the room, and they agreed it could use some decoration.
"Something lively, 'cause it looks like a bomb shelter in here otherwise," senior Jack Folwell said.
The students and Shively selected an outdoor image they found online, a lake scene that "seemed like a place we'd like to be," the art teacher said. They discussed the idea with math teacher Alan Yoak, who is using the room this year, and he suggested they add a focal point, so a red barn was placed near the lake to complement the green of the grass and trees.
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At a glance
Art III and AP Art students at Williamstown High School painted a mural on a classroom wall as a service project.
They started on Oct. 11 and wrapped it up Tuesday.
While they were working, teacher Alan Yoak's class moved to the art room for the period the students had class.
Shively supervised but said the process was mostly student-driven.
"They've done about 99 percent of the work," she said. "We've made decisions together about things to put in it."
It was senior Avery Goff's idea to add an airplane, something that occurred to him after the recent 2012 Air Expo.
"The sky, it was looking kind of plain with those clouds," he said. "I thought maybe we should add something different."
The wall was a much larger canvas than the students usually employ. They made a grid on the picture and then laid one out on the wall, recreating the original image square by square.
Working with multiple artists on one project was also something different, but not at all unpleasant, the students agreed.
"We can express our own ways of doing our art," Goff said, before adding with a laugh, "Whatever I mess up, they fix."
"And they've all been real supportive of each other," Shively said.
Folwell said the project has gotten a good response from fellow students, some of whom stopped in to watch the work, which began on Oct. 11 and was wrapping up Tuesday.
"I think it's awesome that we're leaving something like this," he said.
