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Every year the seniors in AP art are given an opportunity to create a mural in a hallway at AHS. This year, four incredibly talented seniors have taken this opportunity upon themselves and are painting a mural with the theme of “Toy Box Unleashed”: Clara Bultrowicz, Lauren Baka, Dana Fedor, and Coby Conner. A quote that they also based their mural off of is “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”
These seniors were inspired by the creativity of one's childhood. “We seem to lose that childlike creativity as we grow. We wanted to represent that creativity thematically. Our childhood toys were our main source of inspiration for what is depicted in the mural,” Bultrowicz shared. Lauren Baka mentioned that the toys flying out of the toy box symbolize the unknown of our futures as we leave high school.
Dana Fedor looked at the other murals around the school and noticed one thing they all had in common, there wasn’t a connection to that year's graduating class. So in order to include the senior class, they sent out a Google Form which seniors got to fill out by stating their favorite toys from their childhood. Their responses were considered while designing this mural so the artists could feature childhood toys that the majority responded with.
Because of AP classes, not everyone can work on the mural at once. “Some of us have AP classes that we still need to attend, so as of right now some spend more time on the mural than others, but we all work hard when we get the chance to be there!” Baka added.
To start off, they used a projector to go over the design with color pencils on the blank wall. There are a multitude of materials being used to create this mural; a mixture between acrylic paint and airbrush.
Overall these seniors hope that students will pass by their mural and get nostalgia from their childhood and they hope that students will understand and feel a connection to their inner child. If you want to follow along on their journey, check out their instagram account: @ahsmural2025
Thank you to Clara Bultrowicz, Dana Fedor, and Lauren Baka for answering my questions to write this article!
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