The passionate art students manifesting their talents in the cafeteria’s new mural look up to visual art and photography teacher Michelle Sheppard, who is also Algonquin’s National Art Honor Society’s adviser, as their guide to the project.

For the theme of the mural, NAHS students decided to take on the exhilarating topic of “breaking boundaries.”

“We explored breaking boundaries in terms of the wall breaking open,” Sheppard said. “We wanted to think about what’s beyond school.”

The mural, which will be finished this spring, paints a deep meaning. Sheppard hopes that the illusion of the wall crumbling open will crush the disheartening conformities of everyday life.

“I hope that if people are just sitting in the cafeteria and having a bad day, they look at it, and they think about [how] there’s light beyond the storm in that mural,” Sheppard said.

After the school’s renovation in 2006, the walls, though crisply restored, were left fruitless and desolate, urging Sheppard and her team to add more public art to the school.

“The kids said it looked like a prison,” Sheppard said. “And your school shouldn’t feel like a prison. It’s full of rules anyway.”

Sheppard and NAHS expect to add more public art to the school.

“Our whole goal is to serve the community through something we can do [well],” NAHS officer and sophomore Genevieve Cox said.

With more public art sprawling its beauty on the school’s walls, viewers are constantly praising Sheppard and Jen Swan, a professional artist who helped them with the mural, though many forget that the students are the most important part of the project.

“All the stuff that’s in that mural, the kids came up with, with Jen, all together,” Sheppard said. “ I had nothing to do with it. I love that I had nothing to do with it.”

Sheppard feels great pride for how expressive and graciously creative the students are.

“Even in my best classes, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such a really respectful, wonderful group of kids who worked at the natural disagreements of coming to a consensus [on the mural’s subject] with such grace,” Sheppard said.

She anticipates that the mural will evoke wonder, imagination and positivity.

“Above all else I hope that they look at it, that horizon, and I hope it brings a reminder into their day that things can be dark for all of us, but there is also light,” Sheppard said.