MADISON TOWNSHIP — Olivia Kiley’s latest art class assignment is a festive display of school spirit.
Kiley, a junior at Madison Comprehensive High School, recently painted a holiday mural on one of the large glass panels of the secretary’s station.
The piece depicts three high school administrators, along with characters from Disney’s Frozen franchise, enjoying the winter snow.
While Kiley’s talent brought the mural to life, school secretary Bonnie Wilson came up with the idea.
“I asked Olivia, who is also my office aide, if she could possibly paint a mural on the large windows that surround my office,” Wilson said. “My thought process was to feature a winter scene with Olaf, Sven and our awesome administrators.”
Using cutouts of school yearbook photos, Kiley included Principal Sean Conway, Assistant Principal Andrew Ditlevson and Director of Career-Technical Education Jacob Grove in the mural.
“It does add some Christmas spirit for sure,” Grove said. “I’m actually really impressed with it. It’s really well done.
“I think it’s cool the types of talents that our kids have. It’s cool that it can be showcased for everybody to see.”
Ditlevson is shown skiing down a hill with Olaf.
Grove scoops reindeer droppings alongside a sheepish Sven.
A grumpy Conway stands at the entrance of the high school, arms crossed, with a boombox on the ground beside him.
“The only thing I can say in my defense is picture day is not the most fun day in a high school,” Conway said. “I think Olivia did an amazing job.
“It’s fun. It brings a lot of school spirit and general excitement and happiness to our building.”
Kiley hopes to pursue art professionally
Wilson said each portrayal is intentional.
“Madison is such a great school. We have the most caring administrators,” she said. “When I came up with the idea, I wanted to kind of incorporate each of their personalities.”
Wilson said Ditlevson skiing down a hill symbolizes how he’s often flying up and down the hallways, zipping around the school to help kids with whatever they might need.
She decided to have Grove scooping droppings because he’s “the ultimate team player” who is always willing to lend a helping hand.
In the mural, Conway stands in front of the high school, just like he does in real life.
“He’s always out front, every single morning with his boombox, making sure the kids are safe getting in the building okay,” Wilson said.
“While he says that’s not a good picture, he is very protective of our kids.”
Kiley chuckled at Conway’s photo.
“I think it’s really funny that out of the three he’s the grumpy one,” she said. “But I thought it worked pretty well. He’s waiting. He’s mad that Olaf is late to school.”
Kiley said she has wanted to become a professional artist since she was 5 years old. But painting isn’t her medium of choice. This is her first time painting a mural.
“I do a lot of graphic design and stuff like that,” she said. “Painting in person is a lot different and definitely with a bigger scale, but I think it’s really fun.”
While the figures of Sven and Olaf are painted in intricate detail, Kiley said the most challenging part of the mural was the snow.
“You need a lot of layers for it to look decent,” she said. “The hill took about five coats.”
Wilson said she plans to leave the mural up through the winter.
“Every day I would say, ‘What do you think about this? Do you think we could do this?'” Wilson said. “She’s so talented and she spent so much time on this.”
