Students Complete School Mural

When Warwick High School (WHS) art teacher William Cifuni approached senior Liz Buige with a request for her to create a mural in the art department hallway, Buige took Cifuni's ideas and drew some sketches. "He liked (my design)," said Buige, who soon asked her friend and fellow senior Monica Dull for help with the project. The students began painting in October 2021, working on the mural during one period a day when they both had study hall. By late March 2022, the walls outside Cifuni's classroom sported bright flowers, insects, and plants against a backdrop of yellow, pink, and orange stripes arranged in a rainbow pattern on the wall.

According to Buige, Cifuni is a fan of Peter Max, a German-American artist known for his brightly hued works reminiscent of 1960s pop art. "He said he really liked (Max's work), and he wanted me to pull ideas from him," said Buige. "But he let me keep an open mind." Buige added that much of her work has had a similar look to that of Max, so she suspects that is why Cifuni chose her to design the mural. "I wanted it to be bright," said Buige of the planets and flowers that light up the dark hallway. "I centered it with the orange and yellow lines and the sun. Then I came up with ideas on top of that. It took long to figure out how it would look," she recalled.

Buige has been considering an art career since about eighth grade, and when she became a WHS freshman, she started taking art classes. "I have taken about every art class (that is offered)," said Buige, who added that by the time she was a junior she knew she wanted to go into art education. After graduating from WHS, she plans to take a gap year to earn money to pay for college and then to possibly attend Tyler School of Art and Architecture in Philadelphia or a university such as Millersville or Kutztown.

Dull said that her family has art history. "I have always been really into art," she noted, adding that her mother teaches art, mostly acrylic and watercolor techniques, to groups of children and individual adults in the gallery at their home. Dull said that, like Buige, she has taken a lot of art classes. She noted that she and Buige, whom she called her best friend, also take Advanced Placement classes together. "I am thinking of majoring in art and minoring in fashion," said Dull, who is considering attending Albright College in Reading. Dull especially enjoyed working with her friend on the mural. "This project was lots of fun to do together," she stated.

Buige agreed, noting that she likes the idea that their art and ideas will be in the school hallway well into the future. "It's a great senior year kind of thing to put my art out there, but it was a lot of work, too," she stated, adding that since Cifuni will retire soon, she was grateful for the chance to do this for him. "(Cifuni) encouraged me to (continue with art) after high school, and I can't thank him enough for it," she said. "I wanted to do something special and leave something that will be dedicated to him."