I painted three murals for the STEM lab

Pardis Sabeti, Katherine Freese and Anne Marie Imafidon are three women who taught me even though I have never actually met them. I painted three murals for the STEM lab, and as I painted and researched each of these women, they taught me what is means to succeed in varying ways. Sabeti is a scientist at Harvard University who discovered the Ebola Genome. She also rollerblades and is a rock star. Freese teaches at the University of Michigan and is researching dark matter in our universe. Imafidon founded an organization, Stemettes, which encourages girls to explore the STEM career field. In short, these women did amazing things that inspired me to do the same.

The process: 

1. In October (first trimester), my physics teacher brought up the fact that he was taking over the STEM lab and would like some artwork for the space. Shortly after that I began to brainstorm.
2. I then developed a plan online, including photos and a description of the proposed murals. After that, my art teacher (Katie Nowak), the STEM lab teacher (Jeff Patterson), and the principal (Brett Bowers). The plans are below.

3. Next, I gessoed (put a protective coating on) the 3, 2 x 4 foot panels.

4. I then projected the three images onto the panels and traced them so that I had accurate proportions.

5. Following  that, I began to paint the murals with acrylic paint, this took around 3 months to complete. Along with the painting I used contact paper to cut out each of the women’s quotes and names, this was how I achieved the text portion of each piece.

6. After finishing the three paintings, I covered them in a polycrylic sealant.

7. Lastly, I painted the frames and they were attached to the panels and hung up in the STEM lab.