Community Beautification

Nina Oliver, c/o 2023

To benefit my community I used two art projects to increase positivity in my community. My initial intent was to spread a light mood and see smiles on my school community's faces. So I used leftover rocks, paint markers, and Mod Podge from last year's fair here at HHS. I wrote positive affirmations and words of encouragement like “know your worth” and “never settle” on these rocks to be hidden, found, and rehidden. I started by creating the rocks and giving them to people in my school community, taking a picture, and then explaining to them what my goal for the project was. Seeing the smiles and feeling good vibes in the air while watching them take in what I had explained to them reminded me of the reason I decided to do this project. My goal for this project was all about taking in the positivity and passing it on to someone else by finding the rock.  

For the next part of my project, I bought 2 canvases from Dollar Tree at $1.25 each. Most paint I already had but I did purchase more colors that cost $7 in total. I created two paintings on canvases which were placed around the school. One went in Mrs. Parker's front office and one in the room of Mrs. Hewlett, the mental health counselor. These also had words of affirmation but had more details and were clearly larger than the rocks. Both of my projects promote better mental health, self-love, and confidence as well as self-respect and care. I know what people my age, or people going through the same things as I am may need to hear in rough times. Sometimes you just need a shove. Something as simple as words of affirmation could turn someone's day around.

Thank you.