Coloring their world: Mom’s murals brighten Crystal Lake schools

Inside the main entrance of North Elementary School in Crystal Lake, the walls are freshly painted with bright abstract flowers and a giant sun that transformed the area from clinical to colorful.

“We wanted to capture the vibe of this school,” Principal Michelle Barrett said.

The new mural is one of many created in the building by parent Sara Jean Stevens as part of her mission to bring fun and happy places to elementary schools. It all started when Stevens and the Husmann Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization brought some life into the school’s main entryway last year with a colorful mural. Now she has left her mark in multiple areas of both schools and doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon.

[ See more photos of Sara Jean Stevens' murals ]

Starting in August, Stevens has created four murals at the school after Barrett saw her work at Husmann and wanted the same “magic” at North Elementary. It was a group effort of students, staff and parents to come up with the designs of stars, suns, mountains, trees and flowers while incorporating paw prints and blue colors of the school’s husky mascot.

“What I love most is the kids walking through the school and seeing the art,” Barrett said. “And what they see in the art.”

Barrett hopes to gather funds with the school’s PTO so Stevens can create decals that have “hello” written in multiple languages along the main entrance. The school serves over 600 students who speak more than a dozen languages.

“We want everyone to feel welcome,” Barrett said.

Stevens has two children at Husmann Elementary, with another who will be attending in the future. She has been creating interior murals for the past seven years and started her own company, Moth and Moon Co., and describes her work as colorful and “whimsical,” with designs ranging from abstract pieces to vibrant scenes of plants and flowers.

She was able to bring her artist’s touch again to Husmann by adding more murals throughout the school and giving the teacher’s lounge a makeover as her annual donation project. She spruced up the “pretty drab space” that had dark blue walls into a brighter area with white walls and a wallpaper backsplash, Husmann PTO President Katie Galto said.

“I can’t imagine it ever looking like how it did before,” Galto said.

Working in the schools also has Stevens brainstorming to create a mural club at Husmann. She envisions the group could act as a donation hub for parents to donate sample paints and have students create murals at partnering organizations.

“It’s important for kids to see that you can make a career out of painting murals,” she said. “I want all kids to paint.”

The next project in sight at Husmann is to transform the dark bathrooms with a mural that involves artwork created by the students themselves, Stevens said.

Stevens’ projects were funded through the North and Husmann PTOs. The PTOs are completely run with volunteer work and they can execute their projects and activities through fundraising events. Husmann raised over $40,000 during their annual Husmann Hustle earlier this month. Galto aims to use the money for interactive assemblies and school events like trunk-or-treat and cookies with Santa.

“We all have the same goal,” Galto said. “We’re all just trying to make this a very special and unique and memorable experience for all kids.”