Making your mark is like a stamp of saving “remember me “. The art murals are hidden stories painted within these halls. Each one is different from another, but yet they all hold the same value of importance. These murals have been around for 50 plus years. I found that the oldest mural was made in 1932.  Two pencils connecting with 1983 written in on the side  unfinished or maybe it was finished . I wonder what was the story trying to be told.  I wasn’t able to find who started the very first mural.  I found that a retired teacher Mary Quillian was one of the founders of the murals, here at Norwalk Highschool.

Marry Quillian was Ms. Delong’s teacher when she was a senior at NHS.  Ms. Delong  replaced her when she retired.  Another student Adam was  was the inspiration for Ms. Delong art career. She remembers watching  him paint the mural in the stairwell  next to her classroom.  She said she was “In awe of his work” and how he could paint, she wanted to be able to paint like Adam when she was a senior in high school. In Ms. Delong’s junior year her teacher Ms.Qillian challenged her students to create a Trompe-l’oeil self portrait in the hallway. Did you know the mural with  the big group of kids we pass everyday?. Ms. Delong and her class when she was a student here at Nhs painted it.  Located on the 3rd floor heading to D house. She said “It was challenging but I enjoyed it knowing that I would forever have my place in the halls here at NHS.”

Ms. Delong & Ms. Ellett are the reason murals are still alive today. Ms.Delong decided that creating murals would be a great way for students to claim these empty spaces at NHS as their own. She said it was a way  “To promote a sense of unity and belonging putting a mark. Making  a history you created & ownership of the building.” Ms. Ellett within her two years of being an art teacher at Nhs.  Makes the murals  with her  Ap student’s at the end of the year in may. For several years Ms.Delong  honors portfolio students and advanced placement students created murals at the end of the school year.  When the new school will be built . We all wonder what’s happening to the murals. Ms. Ellett and Ms.Delong have decided to take pictures of all the murals throughout the school and make them into a photo gallery. They both still allow students to make the murals even though they are aware that soon they will be erased when the building comes down.