One of the last things recent Valley Regional High School graduates Carolyn Raymond, Heather Jones, and Tessa LeMay did as high school seniors was make a permanent mark on their community. Calling on their artistic prowess, the three created a large Deep River-inspired mural in the covered parking garage at Kirtland Commons.

The idea to paint a huge mural on one of the many concrete walls in the garage came alive when Raymond’s core homeroom teacher Jessica Dwyer presented her with the idea.

“She knew I was into art and she thought it was something I would like to do for my capstone project,” said Raymond, who is going into the Air Force.

Raymond enlisted her friends Jones and LeMay and together the three spent five months working to creating art that not only is beautiful, but also embodies the attributes of Deep River. The large mural depicts a piano keyboard and an elephant, giving a shout back to Deep River’s historical ties to the ivory trade and the manufacturing of piano keys. It also depicts a fife and drum to represent the importance of the historical muster in town, and of course a horseshoe, since horseshoes is the banner sport of the town. All this is set against a backdrop of a view of the sunset and sailboat on the Connecticut River at Deep River Landing.

Each artist contributed 50 volunteer hours to this project and each of them said it was worth all the time and effort, not only because they are so proud of what they created, but because of how happy it has made the residents of Kirtland Commons.

“This is the entrance door that is used very often by the residents and it was so sweet how, while we were working on this project, the residents would stop and talk to us about it. To see how happy it has made them is great,” said Raymond.

“This beautiful art has made a big difference in our garage,” said Delia Lynch, who has been a resident at Kirtland Commons for the past 13 years. “I really love it. I hope they come back and paint the whole place.”

“For me that is the best part, seeing how happy our art makes the residents. It makes me want to make more,” said LeMay, who is headed off to the University of Rhode Island in the fall.

Capstone projects are required of all graduating seniors at Valley Regional High School. Jones said she is so grateful that she was able to work on a project that she was interested in and learned from and she encourages upcoming seniors to do the same and take the time to find something interesting that they care about to work on.

“It will make the entire experience more exciting and fun,” said Jones, who is headed to Curry College in late August. “This was a lot of work but a lot of fun also.”

The girls agreed that one of the hardest parts of the project was coming up with a concept that everyone agreed on, including the Kirtland Commons Board of Directors, closely followed in difficulty by the process of painting on concrete, which none of them had ever done before.

“Sometimes the wall had a lot of moisture and dew on it so it was hard to paint,” explained LeMay. “Also, the concrete was so porous that we had to prime the entire space with outdoor primer before we started working on it.”

“Overall though, it was a great experience and I am glad I was part of it,” said Jones.

“We had plans to do more, but we ran out of time,” explained Raymond.

However, there are still several naked concrete walls still in Kirtland Commons parking garage and hopes are that another group of creative, concerned, artistic seniors is able to paint more murals, making what these three young girls have painted, a tradition of creating beautiful, lasting, positive stamps on the community.