A Glimpse At American History

By Shannon Hicks

Rachel Fossum wanted to do a Newtown High School Senior Project this school year and as a painter, she kept returning to the idea of a mural. Following the pattern of artists who paint or use chalk to create the illusion of holes in walls, floors, or sidewalks, Rachel decided back in September that she wanted to do something similar.

Earlier this week the NHS senior was among the first group of students to offer presentations of their Senior Projects. Rachel’s mural has been a work in progress since the beginning of the school year. She and mentor David Merrill were down to final touches and suggestions last week, but on Monday night, “Door of American History: A Glimpse Into the Past” had its official debut.

The mural has been created to look like a wooden door within a stone frame and archway that has been opened, with a scene out of a magical movie or novel waiting to be walked into. A paved road leads from the high school’s hallway into the scene, shifting in different locations into a dirt road with a bus and elsewhere, a railroad track with an engine chugging along.

On the left side of the scene Rachel has painted an old-fashioned globe-topped gas pump, a horse and buggy, a trio of American buffalo, a pair of cannons on carriage wheels, and a Betsy Ross flag, all within a mountain landscape.

In the center of the painting is a larger American flag (the contemporary one, with a full field of stars) dwarfing a small Confederate flag on its own flagpole. Then in the right area of the mural is everything from a VW bus painted with peace signs and purple and red, like something out of the Sixties, to a covered wagon being pulled by a pair of oxen; the Liberty Bell and a portion of The Declaration of Independence, and a village of 12 dwellings centered around a tilled field.

The back of the mural is a mountain. The sun can be seen poking over the top of the mountain, as can the top sails and castles of Columbus’s three ships.

The mural stands about 6½ feet tall, reaching from the floor to about a foot below the ceiling at its highest point. It is located on the main floor of the high school, in a classroom corridor off the main lobby.

“When I brought up [the idea of the mural] in my first Junior Senior Project class [social studies teacher] Mrs Hardy told me how she would really love to have a history mural near her classrooms,” said Rachel, who plans to attend the University of Maine at Orono after she graduates from NHS in June. “So then I thought that it would be a nice idea to have a door opening up to American history.”

Twice a year Newtown High School students have the opportunity to participate in an independent study course, called The Junior Senior Project Program, allowing them to explore an area of personal interest and choose how they will present their results to an evaluation panel comprising their peers, teachers, and members of the community. The Senior Project’s mission is to provide a program dedicated to the authentic pursuits of students that generates projects and products that enhance and meet the needs of the community.

Students participating in the one-semester course meet for a few group sessions and receive guidance from School to Career Coordinator Peg Ragaini, along with some of the high school’s teachers. The students choose their topic of study and are matched with a mentor, familiar with the subject matter, to work with throughout the endeavor.

Rachel’s mentor was the painter David Merrill, a professional artist who used to live in Newtown and continues to remain very involved in his former hometown (see related story in this week’s Enjoy section). Mr Merrill has worked with NHS students on their Senior Projects in the past, and he remained available for this year’s project.

“Mrs Ragaini set him up to be my mentor. Having [him] as my mentor was a ton of help. He knew a lot more of American history than I did,” said Rachel. “Had he not been there, my first mistake would have been painting teepees instead of wigwams.”

Fortunately Mr Merrill was also able to share some of the painting skills he has nurtured over the years.

“He helped teach me some painting skills along the way,” said Rachel.

Mr Merrill, in turn, was very complimentary about Rachel and her work.

“I gave her very little advice because she has a lot of talent and isn’t afraid to try things,” he said. “She had a great design and very good ideas, and just went with it.”

The mural project was actually Rachel’s second run-through of the Senior Project program. She took — and passed — the course last year, “but barely,” she admitted. “I wanted to prove, mainly to myself, that I could do a lot better and pass without question.”

One of Rachel’s ideas last year was to paint a mural, but she ended up painting and selling T-shirts, which in turn were sold to benefit The Mustard Seed Project.

When she resurrected her desire to paint a mural this year, she also thought about the artists who create paintings or chalk drawings that give viewers the impression they are about to enter a new realm. It was a suggestion from her mother, who pointed her toward a C.S. Lewis book in which he described a door opening to a different place, that started pulling the ideas together for a better Senior Project effort.

Rachel’s mural, with its rolling hills, takes viewers through American history via a series of hills.

“There are different events from American history on each hill,” explained the artist. “The hill farthest away is the farthest in history, and the hill closest to the door is more in the modern day.”

David Merrill was one of the only mentors to attend the first Senior Projects Night on January 26. He was proud to be there to see the presentation by Rachel, and he was pleased with what he saw.

“She was marvelous. She had such poise and confidence,” said the mentor. “I knew she would be a little nervous, but she projected very well. Everyone enjoyed her mural, very much.

“And it is her mural. She’s blossomed into a wonderful artist, and she should be very proud of that work.”