Starting on May 19, many Rock Ridge seniors left to venture into various fields of finance, healthcare, politics, and education for their end of the year capstone, but some students took their passion for art and creativity and left a mark on the walls of Rock Ridge instead. 

Several students chose to paint murals in their teacher’s classroom, incorporating various elements of the class subject as well as their own interests into the paintings. AP Art students were also allowed to work on murals in the main hallway, which was exclusively reserved for them. 

AP art students Nitya Matcha and Sitwat Mian took on this challenge by painting a mural with a deeper message to convey to the students in the main hallway. Intended to represent students’ wishes and hopefulness for the future, their mural is centered on wishes blowing out of a dandelion, turning into a phoenix that represents the student body.  “ Something I want [students] to take away [from the mural] is never lose hope,” Matcha said. “There’s a lot of times where people are in a hopeless situation, especially in high school, with the stress of it all. You have to sometimes have faith and just hope that – wish that – it works out. Whether or not is not really up to you, but just continue to be strong in your mind when it comes to the things that you hope to achieve.”

Along with spreading this message, for Matcha, painting the mural was a reflection of her love and dedication to art. “ I have a true passion for art,” Matcha said. “I’ve been in it since I was a freshman, and then I went all the way to AP. Since I was one of the five to make it all the way to AP art, I might as well take this opportunity to leave something really beautiful in the school.”

Samhita Bellary is another art enthusiast, whose hobby in art has translated to environmental science teacher Corinne Hall-Day’s classroom. Bellary’s vision for the mural is a window into a rainforest that appears to be opening up on the wall, with animals coming towards the viewer who can look out into the distance of the painting. “ The middle of the painting’s kind of blurry and blank a bit, but everything around it is coming towards you, [and] the animals are brighter,” Bellary said. 

Bellary’s ideas came from Hall-Day’s interests, passions, and her recent trip to Costa Rica, which influenced the elements in Bellary’s mural. “ What inspired me would be the things that Ms. Day really wanted in that piece, and her experiences and what she found as a researcher, a teacher, and as an environmental enthusiast,” Bellary said. “So all of the plants, the snakes, the bugs, and almost everything that’s going on [in the mural] is native to Costa Rica.”

Bellary also hopes that this mural can encompass the ideas of environmental science and show students another side to biodiversity. “ What I hope [students] take away would be just how rich and diverse nature can be when you’re in different places of the world or even in your own backyard because a lot of these plants and animals [can’t be seen] in Virginia at all,” Bellary said. 

Taking a different approach, Rania Lahbibi painted floral, doodle style wallpaper in accordance with biology teacher Madina Mamatova’s request. Although the design is simple, Lahbibi has taken on the challenge of painting almost an entire wall of the classroom. Her love for AP Biology, as well as her passion in the sectors of art and photography, led her to choose painting murals as her capstone. “I really enjoyed [Mamatova’s] class, and I really like her too,” Lahbibi said. “She’s a really sweet person, and doing the mural for her was a really nice way especially because she doesn’t have anything done on her wall.”

Lahbibi, who wants to go into a pre-medical path, encourages students to hone in on hobbies that are different from their career path as well as consider doing a mural for capstone. “I’m in AP Biology, and I’m science inclined, but I love art at the same time,” Lahbibi said. “I hope students understand you can have several different hobbies, even if it doesn’t fit into what you want to do in life.  I think [painting murals] is a really cool idea because it’s kind of like your footprint in the school before you leave. Especially since [it’s] my senior year, it’s a way for me to sign off.” 

With similar feelings and a strong passion for art, Bellary hopes to empower other students to seek this opportunity. “ I love art, I love painting, and I love sketching,” Bellary said. “The whole entire process for me is really nice, methodical, and almost peaceful in a sense. If [students are] passionate about painting, if they want to leave their mark in the school, and if they have nowhere else to turn to, then I would definitely [paint a mural] because I think it’s a good way to spend your capstone.”

Gallery • 6 Photos

Sanvi Challa

Sitwat Mian and Nitya Matcha work on painting the dandelion of their mural. “When people blow dandelions, they're making a wish, and so the idea is that these wishes are all kind of blowing in the air and turning into a phoenix,” Matcha said.