The tornadoes of 2011 completed demolished the 8th grade wing of Ringgold Middle School. Priority was to get the students back in the main part of the school by that August - quite a task considering the amount of work to be done. The new 8th grade wing entrance murals were completed in Dec 2011. Designed by the architects, big and bold murals were the name of the game again, and we got to use two metallic paints on these. Two colors of platinum in the RMS letters (R not showing) on the left, and the lighter platinum color in the gray areas of the tiger mural.
Ringgold Middle School decided on a new color palette for the renovations after the tornado of 2011. Replacing the old gold color with gray really gave the school a fresh new look along with all of the renovations.
An upgrade and facelift with the new color palette were also in order for this big and bold cafeteria mural for Ringgold Middle School.
In time, many of the departments of Ringgold Middle School were allowed budget for various renovations following the tornado of 2011. Thankfully, Catoosa County Schools value the difference a mural and art can make in a space. The media center used to have windows all along the long wall above, but in the renovation stage, they were all sealed up and sheetrocked over, giving the area a blank look - especially with the gray paint on the walls. The director of the media center called me in to put some quotes on the wall. Inspired by the John Lennon posters of roses forming a peace sign, I designed this funky quotes mural. Talk about a change!! When kids walked in to see the library murals for the first time, their immediate reaction was always, "Awesome!" The space in the inset is a 43'w going right from the long 73' wall that forms the center of the space. I designed a sci-fi mural space for that end.
In this 43'w left end of the media center, the director wanted a tree of life mural, along with the same funky colors in this library mural. And because of the recent tornadoes, I suggested putting a phoenix, kind of in the background of the mural, as if it was rising out of it. (look to the right of the tree) It's almost hidden, so it becomes a nice surprise when the new students discover it for the first time!
Closeup of the phoenix mural area and tree of life mural area - part of the media center mural in Ringgold Middle School.
The 43'w right side of the media center mural was designed to appeal to Sci-Fi readers.
Ringgold Middle School Book Nook murals: One year after 2011's tornado restoration, Ringgold Middle School commissioned me to design and paint something in their drab little book nook. The director wanted more of the funky mural style in the main library mural, so we did it again! This led to a very colorful book nook adorned with 3 more quotes. Outside the book nook entrance, a commemoration was painted for a specific (deceased) teacher.
Back wall of the book nook mural with a Dr Seuss quote.
The right side of the book nook mural, adorned with another inspirational quote about books.
The new Ringgold Middle School gray looks pretty good in the rest of the school, but super drab in the media center! The new colorful and funky mural adds a lot to the small space.
A view from the back of the book nook mural area. What a difference the new swirls of psychedelic colors make! It was great fun creating an abstract mural space what used to be such a drab space.
An area linking the two gyms and several other spaces in Ringgold Middle was named "Tiger Square", but had no signage. So when teachers would direct new students to the area, they weren't sure where to go. Using the new palette, and the old english "R" that came to be synonymous with the solidarity the Ringgold community felt after the storms, I designed these Tiger Square murals, along with several quotes to go in the area, to give it identification.