Morgan Murphy, Mattilynn Spence, and Caeli Gipe are talented and passionate artists who love designing ideas and bringing them to life through paint. They set out with a shared goal: to create murals at our school and throughout the town of Pottsville, adding color, creativity, and art to public spaces. To start the process, they needed to get the paint donated. Rideout Lumber took on the challenge and has donated everything we have needed.
Each mural begins digitally, as they sketch and design using the Procreate app and an Apple Pencil on an iPad. Then it is approved by their Community Partner, Madeline Langston, the Art Teacher at our school.
Their first project was a double-wall mural in the Pottsville High School cafeteria, transforming one of our favorite gathering spaces with vibrant color and energy. Using the same design, our school professionally “wrapped” all of the office windows across the Pottsville High School campus in it, allowing their artwork to reach even more students and visitors. Their next mural brought creativity, color, and school spirit to the newly built 9th-grade wing, which also houses art classrooms and opened earlier this school year.
As the Pottsville community has seen their work, interest in their murals has grown, and they are now receiving frequent requests for new projects. Most recently, they have designed, and are about to begin painting, a mural connecting the White House and the Governor’s Mansion at Pottsville’s Historic Potts Inn Museum.
Most recently at our program’s East Night Out and 25th anniversary the group received an EAST Project Coin from Matt Dozier recognizing their project. We can’t wait to see this latest mural completed—and to see what they dream up next!