Oskaloosa — If Oskaloosa's history wasn't colorful before, it is now.
Molly Bellinger, an Oskaloosa High School senior, has spent about 150 hours painting it in vivid hues on a wall at the school.
For her senior project, Oskaloosa High School student Molly Bellinger, 18, is painting a mural of the town's history in the style of the famous regionalist painter John Steuart Curry.
"I've painted what I've seen all my life," she said of her project, "and it lets others see what our town used to look like."
Bellinger, 18, has put finishing touches on her depiction of the town's past, which includes the 1960s tornado that damaged the county courthouse and former jail. In Bellinger's painting, roads separate the town's past from its present. A dirt road bounds the past. A blacktop edges the present.
Bellinger said she incorporated the styles of regionalist painters, such as 20th-century artists John Steuart Curry and Thomas Hart Benton, into her mural. Regionalists painted their surroundings, idealizing rural life.
Bellinger is one of 50 students completing her senior project, a requirement to graduate from Oskaloosa High School. But it's taken longer than she anticipated. By the end of November, she already had logged 45 hours simply sketching the mural on the wall.
"It's supposed to be 15 hours of out-of-class time, but it's taken me about 150 hours," she said.
Besides the 15 hours, English teacher Annette Collins said students must do a research paper on a topic relating to their project and complete a portfolio. Students will present their projects May 4 to a five-member panel of judges.
Collins said the students learn about time management, enhance their public speaking skills and more.
"Most of importantly, they learn pride," she said. "Their self-esteem improves when they overcome their challenge. You can't give self-esteem."
Included among the other projects, students are studying astrophotography, helping clean remains of a camarasauras dinosaur at the Kansas University Natural History Museum, learning scuba diving and training a dog for obedience, search and rescue.
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.