HPHS Artists Give Armstrong Eagles a Place to Roost

Thanks to hard work from two Highland Park High School freshmen, students at Armstrong Elementary — where the mascot is the eagle — now have a place to soar.

Caspar Curry and Devin Li spent about two weeks in August painting an 11-by-11 foot mural of a beautiful forest in the school’s library. 

The mural was inspired by environments where eagles roost. Its tall trees, stream, mountains, and blue sky have replaced formerly blank wall space near the library’s main entrance. 

“Everybody walks by it every day,” Armstrong Librarian Lori Riley said. “And it was so fun to hear all the kids’ comments, even from preschool all the way to fourth grade. They would say things like, ‘Oh my goodness. That’s so beautiful.’”

Caspar, whose sister Colette is a second grader at Armstrong, asked fellow artist Devin to help with the mural with the aim of beautifying the library space. 

“Since I have a passion for art, and I also wanted to help out the community, I just jumped at this opportunity to paint the mural,” Devin said.

The pair spent about 60 hours working on the project. The mural became a family affair. Caspar and his mother bought art supplies, and both mothers shuttled the painters lunch.

One of the mural’s challenges was projecting Caspar’s small reference image of the forest onto the oversized space. Caspar made a grid to scale up the design while keeping the correct proportions. The pair took turns standing on a ladder to work on the higher sections.

“It wasn’t very stable, so it was a little hard to draw at the very top,” Caspar said. “But there’s not a ton of detail that was needed for the top part.”

Devin and Caspar sketched their design with graphite pencils before finishing the project with acrylic paint. The pair wore headphones during the hours each day they spent painting. Caspar managed to finish his summer reading by listening to audio books.

When the mural was complete, the young artists and their families gathered to celebrate, and Devin and Caspar surprised their younger sisters by showing them the mural for the first time.

“They really, really cared about making it look amazing for all the kids at Armstrong,” Riley said. “You can tell they just have a big heart for their art.”

Riley said that the mural is a calming feature in the library. It creates a peaceful atmosphere and can be helpful for students who are having a tough day.

Colette said that she loves the colors on the trees and in the river. Friends see her brother’s name on the bottom of the mural and tell her that he has great handwriting or how much they like the painting.

Armstrong’s teachers, Colette said, remind their students that “we’re all eagles. We’re all in a big forest,” but until the mural arrived, she didn’t see any realistic-looking forests at her school.

“It’s the first forest,” she said. “If you get close to it, it’s actually like you’re in a forest.”