Nolan artists' third mural promotes healthy eating

Nolan Middle School’s Fine Arts Club for Talented Students (FACTS) completed its third mural — a painting in the school’s cafeteria that promotes healthy eating.

In November, the same group of students produced their second mural on the side of a portable classroom. It represented a beach at Emerson Point.

The year before, the club painted a wetland scene on another portable classroom.

Eighth-graders Cassidy Darnell and Julie Cotton simply call the latest mural, a Future Farmers of America-themed painting, “The Mural.”

The student artists first projected the image they wanted to create onto the wall using a digital picture. Then, they chalked around the image and painted it.

Cotton said the biggest challenge was painting a basket of eggs.

Seventh- and eighth-graders began work on the mural before Christmas.

They then spent up to two-and-a-half hours per week from after Christmas until spring break, working both in class and after school, to finish the project.

“I was afraid it wasn’t going to look as good as we wanted, but then you realize people do like it, and it’s a relief,” Cassidy said.