Avalon Nuovo ’13 covered the walls of the Rugby annex, the two temporary portable buildings across from  Rugby Hall, with quotes from literature chosen by the English Department.

Painting began during July and was completed the first week of August.

“I saw Avalon balancing herself on ladders and railings to make the mural happen,” English teacher Jocelyn Medawar said. “I will think of her whenever I walk by, and that’s always a good thing. She’s a marvelous human being who left a wonderful mark on campus for the whole community.”

After Head of School Jeanne Huybrechts approached Nuovo with the idea to paint the Rugby annex, Nuovo came up with the concept of using selections  from novels and poems chosen by the teachers in the English department.

Nuovo said she was chosen to paint the mural because of her experience and work with the school’s Visual Arts Department and with large canvas paintings through the years.

“This mural is unlike any other large and colorful paintings I have done, but it fits the atmosphere of the school,” Nuovo said.

The mural depicts multiple pieces of text oriented in different styles and sizes around the sides of the two classrooms.

“I like the mural because it is not overwhelming,” Nuovo said. “It is very geometric in its design and looks modern.”

The mural includes quotes from  works by Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Orwell, William Shakespeare and other authors whose works are included in the school’s English curriculum.

“I hope that as students and adults are rushing madly from one commitment to the next, some golden nugget of language embeds itself, consciously or unconsciously,” Medawar said. “Ideally, students and adults may even stop the mad pace a minute and sort out a whole quotation now and then.”