Minooka seniors create metamorphosis of art in mural

MINOOKA – Minooka Community High School art teacher Dana Becker has for several years been the sponsor of the school’s Senior Mural. They’re all wonderful, she said of the murals, full of talent and creativity.

But the concept of the one designed and painted by the 2015-16 seniors is of an entirely different notion, she said.

“It’s a unique concept,” Becker said. “It’s different from the others in that the other murals use more of a student-based theme. ... This one has such a new and fresh concept.”

The piece, on a hallway on the Central Campus building, features a montage of sections of a dozen or so famous paintings.

The four student artists – Jacqueline Sartore, Jacquline Krohn, Nicole Clark and Morgan Scholtes – did not aim to make exact replicas of the originals.

“We were not extra-meticulous with the details,” Krohn said. “We took what they had done and carried it on. ... We made it our own, while paying homage to what they had done.”

Paintings represented in the mural included, among other works: “The Son of Man,” by Magritte; “The Wave off Kanagawa,” by Hokusai; “The Persistence of Memory,” by Dali; “The Creation of Adam,” by Michelangelo; “Christina’s World,” by Wyeth; and “Waterfall,” by Escher.

Krohn has taken art classes every year at MCHS and said that she, Sartore and Clark have over the years grown in their abilities together. Krohn said she uses mostly ink and pen when making art on her own, but she also loves painting.

“It represents the growth and metamorphosis of art through the ages,” Krohn said of the mural. “We chose iconic artists and paintings.”

Krohn plans on studying animation in college next year.

Sartore said it was a competitive process to be chosen to be on the mural team.

“Mrs. Becker put out applications,” she said, “and we had to submit pieces of art and share ideas of what we could do. ... We all had a bunch of ideas.”

Sartore said the mural shows a sense of togetherness of the different paintings pieced together in one work. She said she enjoyed doing the mural. It took a lot of time discussing and debating the styles and composition, she said. Sartore intends to attend the Art Institute of Chicago next year.

Clark said the group spent almost three weeks working last summer on the mural, for about eight hours each day. It was especially difficult to paint the top of the piece, she said.

“We had to stand on chairs or ladders,” she said.

Clark’s contribution were Munch’s “The Scream,” Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” and the Magritte piece.

“I was really happy with the way the mural turned out,” she said. “At the end, I think we all were kind of surprised at how well it turned out.”

Clark plans on majoring in an art field in college next year, as well.

Scholtes intends to pursue her degree in aerospace engineering, although she said she has always had a love of art and was honored to be chosen to the mural team.

“It was a lot of work,” she said of doing the mural. “I hadn’t really painted very much. ... I kind of learned how to paint while doing the mural. I’m really glad they had patience with me.”

Scholtes said her favorite part of the mural is how all the different components interact with each other in the same piece.