Morrisville students revive old building with vibrant murals

Morrisville High School truly made something out of nothing.

Throughout the past couple years, students have been painting life-size murals of cartoon characters and various vibrant scenes near the high school onto an old vacant building, called Capital View, on West Hendrickson Avenue.

The story of the mural began when Morrisville residents told the school board that the old building was an “eyesore” for the community. The building was once a Morrisville elementary school, but has been vacant since at least the early 2000s, and therefore, has become a bit run-down looking. About two years ago, the school board brought this topic of creating a mural on this property to the principal, and the mural project began in the 2023-2024 school year.

The mural art program consists of about forty-six students, which includes most of the graduating class. Wesley Pena, a 12th grade student, who worked on the mural from February to June last year, helped with the idea of the large octopus at the beginning of the mural. He was part of a collaborative group, including students Hayley Davis, a 12th grade student, and Nadia Danso, a 10th grade student, who conceived the idea of an octopus as a way to connect multiple murals with its tentacles carrying the cartoon characters around. Overall, Pena already sees the positive effect the mural has on the Morrisville community.

“I think it gives the town a nice shine of life that it needed,” Pena said. “This building's been here, to be honest, I don't know how long. And there's already moss growing on the corners. I think it just adds and breathes more life into the town.”

The making of the Morrisville mural itself also proved to be a good lesson for the students on working together as a team.

“It showed the importance of teamwork and communicating. There were times when we were done with a specific area and we said, ‘what next, guys?’” Pena said. “So it was a good opportunity to participate in team building and learn how to brainstorm together.”

For many students involved, being part of the mural art program is more than just painting together, but also learning together. Tah’nia Carr, a 10th grade student, said it’s a form of self-expression, and that she can “finally feel free.” 

Miah Carmack, also in 10th grade, felt similarly. “This mural is a way for all of us to show our artistic sides and be ourselves,” Carmack said.

Lindsay Bauer, who has been teaching art at Morrisville High School for nine years, began discussing what the project could look like after the principal brought the proposal to her.

“We talked about what would work, what wouldn’t work, and what the purpose of the mural would be,” Bauer said. “We (also) talked about how the community would perceive this mural, and how we needed to respect our community, seriously thinking about our theme because it would become public art.”

Shortly after, Bauer taught them about murals, and then how to supersize a sketch to life-size through the gridding technique. Maintenance then sent a list of window measurements and dimensions of the old building, and the tech-ed teacher, Kevin Jones, cut plywood, which the murals would be painted on, to fit the specific windows. 

Students then broke into groups, each drawing different sketches, and brought all of them together to collage their ideas into one big image. One group member came up with the idea of a hidden picture of characters and cartoons. They ultimately decided on incorporating popular cartoon characters from the past and present to connect older and newer generations. 

The American artist and designer, Brian Donnelly, also known as KAWS, was an inspiration for one of the murals. A mural that depicts a character floating among the clouds with its hands over its face is supposed to resemble Donnelly’s balloon for the Macy’s Day Parade, called the Companion Figure. While mixing paints, the students unintentionally gave the character a twist by having its skin tone half light and dark. They chose to leave it as is because it resembles a skin condition called Vitiligo, which some Morrisville students live with. It was also the only character with a human-like skin tone, so it reflects and connects with all ethnicities.

“Its presence is a subtle but meaningful nod to representation, difference, and shared humanity,” Bauer said.

The final steps of creating the mural included brushing primer onto the plywood, painting the background colors, sketching all the details in white chalk, outlining in black, and then painting inside the shapes.

“As for ideas, it was all students’ ideas. I did not guide them on what to do, or give any color preferences,” Bauer said.

This creative mural art program did not always exist at the school. Before becoming a teacher, Bauer was a professional muralist, painting murals for businesses and other professions. Her house has murals all over it. Four years ago, Bauer created the mural art program. When she started teaching at Morrisville, the course was labeled “school spirit art.” 

“I felt like the curriculum was really restrictive because all we could do is school spirit stuff,” Bauer said, adding, “I think that it opens their mind to other possibilities as far as jobs or future entrepreneurship that they can do. In my personal opinion, any job is creative.”

Mural art has a much different creative process than other forms of art. As Pena said before, mural-making often involves a lot of teamwork and communication. This, in turn, can provide a useful skill for adult professional life.

“Sometimes in art, it’s just independent projects,” Bauer said. “I think it's really important for students to learn how to do group work because I've never been at a job where you're just independently doing something on your own. There's always been at least a team that you have to answer to or a team that you have to collaborate with, even if it's just brainstorming ideas.”

The murals were unveiled on May 28th, with Bauer, Principal Brian Oberdick, Wesley, and other community members in attendance.

Principal Oberdick often takes the time to admire the murals, which are not just a good learning experience for his students, but also a way to make a broader connection with the community surrounding the school.

“I love the fact that I get to show off my students' artwork and their creativity because they've designed this whole thing,” Oberdick said. “To be able to show them off and let the community see what they have created is a great way to make a connection with the Morrisville community.”

Murals not only literally represent a life-size image of something, but they also provide a symbolic image of who painted them. Oberdick thinks the students’ mural displays their imagination.

“It shows that our kids are creative and are capable of doing anything,” Oberdick said.

Stay tuned until next year when the students paint the back of the building, finishing the story of this meaningful mural.