SHS mural showcases Bulldog pride

SANDPOINT — Not every student gets to make a permanent mark on their school, but several volunteer artists have done just that this year.

After countless hours of tedious and frustrating work, local art students have finished work on a mosaic mural now gracing the entry hall of Sandpoint High School. Committing themselves to a project that took most of the year, Emily Howerton, Breik Stockdale, Stephanie Colin, Sage Piatt and

Stevana Sego brought the mural from conceptual design to completion under the tutelage of artist-in-residence Lynn Guier. The group officially unveiled their work in a small ceremony Monday morning.

“I think everyone was very professional and did a really good job,” Guier said. “The thing that was really amazing was their dedication and self-motivation.”

Indeed, the mural turned out to be an endeavor where everything that could go wrong, did.

The group started out by discussing various design approaches and fleshing out ideas. After refining their concepts, they put together a cohesive design that they brought before the school administration.

Once school officials had approved a design, the real work began. The girls had to fashion each piece of the mosaic according to precise specifications. Since heat was a necessary element in affixing each mosaic piece, the artists originally tried using a heat gun. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out too well. The  pieces wouldn’t adhere, and the team had to improvise with hot irons to make any headway. Not the most nimble of instruments, the irons introduced as many problems as they solved.

“If you bumped one, four would move,” Stockdale said.

 They also had to deal with materials on back-order and the simple monotony of creating the mural one piece at a time. The project required the team to invest many hours of their own time, in some cases working 10-hour days to stay on schedule. At the unveiling, however, everyone agreed that the effort was well-worth the results.

“We’ve never done anything like this before,” SHS principal Becky Meyer said. “It turned out way better than I ever thought it would.”

Now that the mural is complete, the project members can enjoy the rest of the school year knowing they’ve created something that will greet future students for years to come.

“It’s a relief to have it done,” Howerton said. “We spent our last school year working on a fantastic mural.”