Behind The Wall

On the southwest side of campus overlooking the main lawn lies a wall. When students return from summer break, they see an empty, blank wall poised before them as they hurry past, rushing to get to class or to lunch or to their cars at the end of the day. But by the end of the year, lively colors and images light up the wall. The senior wall’s annual transformation is no secret to CB students, but the planning and hard work that goes into creating this work of art often goes unnoticed.

So how is the senior wall being recreated this year? The Talon went to find out.

The first step in creating the wall is getting artists together to work on it. Senior Class Council often asks talented artists in the class if they are willing to help create the wall. However, anyone in the senior class is able to volunteer to help as well.

Once the artists are chosen, they get together to come up with ideas for the wall. Mary Claire Hancock (’17) describes the process that this year’s artists went through to create the design.

“We all thought about conceptually an idea to do for the wall and then ran it by student council and went through a bunch of drafts until we found one that would work and that we got an ‘okay’ for.”

Next, it is the council’s responsibility to provide the artists with the supplies they need to paint the wall. When the design is set and the supplies are ready, the artists begin work on the wall. It is a long, step-by-step process.

“When you’re painting something as large as the mural, you always want to start with a grid,” Joy Wilcox (’17) explains. “Then you can take your sketch and lay a grid over that with the same proportions and basically do a giant transfer.”

This method allows artists to work on just one small section at a time, rather than being overwhelmed by the enormity of the wall.

The artists work from the top down so as to avoid dripping paint on their previous work. They also have to use house paint — which is a challenge, according to Mary Claire — so the paint stays intact in all weather.

Most important to note, however, is the significance of the wall and its impact on members of the senior class. It brings a sense of unity to the class as they journey through their final year of high school. The artists especially feel this sense of unity as they work together for many hours to complete the wall.

“I like getting to work with a bunch of different artists and see how all of us work together,”says Mary Claire.

“I think the senior wall is important because it shows that lots of different people can come together and make something that represents our class, and it’s really cool because it’s like our mark on CB, even though it’s only temporary,” Joy added.

This year’s senior wall will be innovative, vibrant, and a great representation of the graduating class.  So stay tuned for the epic conclusion to this story, coming in the form of brilliant artwork on the senior wall.