Capstone Murals Leave A Mark on Freedom

[Story by Sadie Porter]

Seniors have endless options for Capstone from shadowing at a doctors office to working with animals. For a couple students, Capstone looks like painting a mural in the art hallway.

Two of the couple of students who are working together on a mural are Manmayi Ghaisis and Daniel Tanudjaja.

This is a big undertaking, and these students are ready to create a masterpiece.

“It feels exciting, yet a little nerve wracking,” Ghaisis said. “I’m sure Daniel feels this way too, but it’s a lot of pressure to produce a piece of art that you hope most people will love.”

They are the only students who are working on this specific mural, which gives them a lot of space for creativity, but a lot of work.

“I personally love the anticipation,” said Ghaisis.

Tanudjaja and Ghaisis have decided to paint a mural focused on what Freedom fine arts is all about.

They are creating a “series of vignettes that basically represent the three main disciplines our school offers within our Fine Arts Wing,” Tanudjaja said.

Those three aspects are visual arts, music and drama.

“Our goal is to shed light on all different art forms that Freedom has,” Ghaisis said.

Freedom houses talented students within the fine arts wing, and often they can be overlooked due to the fine arts wing being so hidden.

“We’re planning to spruce up the barren walls and hopefully add some flare and liveliness to the Fine Arts Wing, so it looks less like a basement, and more like a fine arts wing,” Tanudjaja said.

Painting a mural can cause some difficulty deciding on what to paint on such a big space. Getting inspiration is a key part of the process.

“We were inspired mainly by what different artists have done in the past, from aspects of the Harlem Renaissance’s art’s use of complementary colors and geometric shapes to minimalist duct tape wall murals,” Ghaisis said.

Tanudjaja believes this is a way of giving back to the teachers and programs of the fine arts wing.

“I also want to give back to the Fine Arts department at Freedom after extensively taking classes from various disciplines and teachers within the department,” Tanudjaja said.

These two students want to celebrate Freedom’s art programs, because they have a special connection with the fine arts department.

“We hope that people see our mural and see their personal love for art displayed in it, whether it be for music, theater, or painting and drawing,” Ghaisis said.

It’s important to include all of the aspects of Freedom Fine Arts because every discipline deserves to be represented.

Many Freedom students have a special connection to art, including the teachers, which has gotten them through tough times throughout their high school years.

“Mrs. Kang from the Fine Arts department has been of immense help and support in helping us get approval from administration and develop potential designs for the proposed mural,” Tanudjaja said.

Julie Kang said, “[first] creating a proposal design with limited colors, [second] finding a location to display the mural, and [third] scheduling a meeting with the Principal to discuss plans.”

Kang provided support to Ghaisis and Tanudjaja by helping behind the scenes.

With Tanudjaja and Ghaisis being very good friends, it was a perfect match for these handful of projects.

“With such an ambitious plan, I knew I needed some extra hands and extra input, so naturally Manmayi, being someone I knew who was naturally artistically inclined, was someone I knew would be the right person to work alongside,” Tanudjaja said.

This mural physically represents how fine arts shapes Freedom and the love that many students have for the programs.

What this mural will silently represent is teamwork and partnership, which is what these students want to display.