Each year at PHS, different groups of students in Studio Art III paint a mural in relation to the word “skull.” For most, this word may conjure up images of death and decay, but these art students look through the gloom to find inspiration.

“In Studio Art I, students draw realistic skulls and animal bones, and in Studio Art II, they do the same again. Then in Studio Art III, they come back to the idea of the skull, and they think about what it could mean and represent symbolically,” said Matthew Pembleton, one of the Studio Art teachers at PHS.

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The tradition of painting murals or installing 4x8-foot painted panels onto the walls has endured since 2000. Unlike many of the individual projects done in the Studio Art III class, the mural project highlights that teamwork is needed in order to create a stellar finished product.

“I think the main purpose of this project is to show that art and collaboration can be made by many people, not just one person,” Pembleton said.

Although it may seem like a simple task to paint a mural, the project requires a few weeks worth of planning before the painting can actually begin. 

The process starts with thorough research of modern and historic murals throughout art history, ranging from the Renaissance era to the Mexican muralist movement in the 1900s. Students then take a tour around PHS to look at past murals created by previous Studio Art III students. After gaining inspiration and ideas from these different sources, students engage in collaborative mind mapping and sketching. To start, they need to come up with ideas relating to the skull theme. There are many diverse perspectives that can be taken for this project. It is fascinating to see how different minds approach the same word based on their imaginations along with their individual interpretations. After two to three weeks of laying the groundwork, students start painting the murals on the walls.

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Although the word skull often evokes feelings of death and doom, the students have shown that there can actually be a lot more to it.

“Our mural is like the exact opposite of what [we] first thought of when I heard the word ‘skull.’ We’re doing an art history inspired mural, but we’re also incorporating a bit of modernity to it. We’re mostly inspired by two Renaissance pieces: The Birth of Venus and Creation of Adam,” said Myrrah Shapoo ’23, a student in Studio Art III.

“We’ve taken components from each, and we’ve mixed them together to create one piece. We are doing them in the form of a skeleton to bring in androgyny and to put a twist on these classical pieces,” Shapoo said.

Focusing on darkness and mystery, students Andy Yao ’23 and Ned Erickson ’22 created a “surrealist landscape” that focuses on the uncertainty we have about the afterlife.“

We thought of death, and we thought about what happens to a skull after you die and if it’s just empty. This led to us wondering about what happens after you die and how we don’t really know. We wanted to make it weird because we don’t know what happens after we die,” Erickson said.

“We’re going to have a bunch of random stuff like planets, columns, and broken statues so that it’s dreamlike ... It’ll be made up of a weird collection of things, so you’re not sure what’s going on or when it’s happening,” said Yao. PHS art students have been enriching the school with their artwork over the years, as can be observed with the many posters, sketches, and paintings already being displayed on the walls.

This current mural project is a symbol of the beauty that lies in collaboration, and altogether, it will serve as a manifestation of the students’ creativity as a whole. The murals should be finished by early April, and will be on display in room 172 for students after spring break

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