National Art Honor Society Students Paint Mural Celebrating Cultural Diversity

Nashitha Azeez, Dreamcatcher Assistant Editor| August 21, 2021

  • Simoni Khare ‘22, Arunima Das ‘23, Rosie Deal ‘22, Rhea Mucherla ‘21, Anya Gupta ‘23, and Nashitha Azeez ‘22 sit in front of the completed mural. They met the day before school started to take final pictures of the mural. Photo courtesy of Arunima Das ‘23.

    Arunima Das
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  • Seniors Simoni Khare and Rosie Deal paint the Pantheon and the Colosseum of Rome. Both monuments are located in Rome. Photo courtesy of Arunima Das ‘23.

    Arunima Das
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  • Grace Langdon ‘21 paints the Empire State Building. She also helped paint the Todaiji temple and Christ the Redeemer. Photo courtesy of Arunima Das ‘23.

    Arunima Das
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  • Rosie Deal ‘22, Nashitha Azeez ‘22, Grace Langdon ‘21, and Simoni Khare ‘22 paint the sky and the grass. Blue and green had to be mixed many times to cover the expanse of the wall. Photo courtesy of Arunima Das ‘23.

    Arunima Das
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  • A panoramic shot of the mural. Photo courtesy of Arunima Das ‘23.

    Arunima Das
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  • There are many notable land monuments together on the mural, such as the Texas Capitol, the Big Ben, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, and the Colosseum of Rome.

    Nashitha Azeez
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  • Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. This was painted by Grace Langdon ‘21. Photo courtesy of Arunima Das ‘23.

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  • The Burj Khalifa in Dubai. This was painted by Anya Gupta ‘23. Photo courtesy of Arunima Das ‘23.

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Over the summer, National Art Honor Society (NAHS) students painted a mural in the world languages hallway. Beginning on Monday, June 7, the students who contributed to the mural were Rhea Mucherla ‘21, Arunima Das ‘23, Grace Langdon ‘21, Anya Gupta ‘23, Simoni Khare ‘22, Rosie Deal ‘22, and Nashitha Azeez ‘22.

During the 2019-2020 school year, the mural team was formed, and they created a plan for the mural. Since it was in the world languages hallway, they decided to create a landscape with notable world monuments, such as the Great Wall of China and the Eiffel Tower. However, due to a delay in supplies and the pandemic, the mural was postponed. 

“I wanted to be a part of the mural team to leave an impact at Westwood, and because I thought it was really cool to have the opportunity to add color and life to a blank wall,” Deal said. “It was hard being delayed by a year because by the time we started to paint, the juniors who had helped to plan the mural had become seniors and graduated. We were very lucky that a couple of them still got to be a part of it, and came back to paint and leave their mark on the school.” 

Towards the end of the 2020-2021 school year, when vaccinations were made available for the general public, and there was a drop in coronavirus cases, the team decided to resume work on the mural again. They decided to meet during the summer to finish it. The group spent, on average, four to eight hours a week painting the mural. 

“I was so excited to get to move forward with the plan we had created especially after not being at school all year due to COVID,” Deal said. “We had worked really hard to find a wall we could paint on and had spent so much time planning the whole process that I was just looking forward to getting to actually start. It was tiring working for such a long time, but it was also so rewarding to see the mural develop over time as we continued to work. Seeing it finished was worth giving up so much time during the summer to work on it.”

On the first day, they traced the monuments, and for the next few days, copious amounts of green and blue paints were used to cover the grass and sky. After that, they divided the monuments amongst themselves and painted them. Towards the end, they cleaned up edges, repainted parts of the grass and sky, and more. The mural was completed on Monday, Aug. 16. 

“The process of painting this mural was different and unique than any other art project I’ve worked on,” Das said. “While I didn’t dislike any part of the process, working on such a large wall was definitely a challenge. I enjoyed working as a team because everyone is so talented, hardworking, and passionate. I also loved being able to paint all the different monuments to represent various cultures. Lastly, seeing the positive reaction of teachers, staff, and students felt gratifying and encouraging.”

As of now, NAHS doesn’t have any particular murals planned but is looking for more opportunities to create murals in the future.