Lawrence North National Art Honor Society mural celebrates native plants • Current Publishing

In Lawrence’s Lee Road Park, coneflowers and milkweed bloom. And even after the summer, visitors can enjoy native plants in bloom year-round thanks to a large, colorful mural near the park’s wildflower meadow.

Students from Lawrence North High School’s National Art Honor Society spent several summer days designing and painting a new mural on the side of a building at Lee Road Park, 6200 Lee Rd., on the south side of the parking lot.

Teagan Hatley, the new third-grader, said the group was asked to help with the mural toward the end of last school year.

“We were trying to get a lot of natural pollinators in here, and we also wanted a monarch butterfly,” she said. “And kind of in a pop art style.”

Kylie Atkinson, who is also a rising third-year student, said the mural showcases native plants in a colourful way.

“We learned about the names — some of them are pretty hard to pronounce,” Atkinson said. “We learned that from (Liz Masur) and we always go to the field and try to find a reference, or try to match colors, or things like that. So yeah, we learned a lot.”

Lillian McClintock, a senior this year, described the flowers featured in the mural. She pointed out two types of coneflowers: purple and yellow.

“This is the gray vervain — this is the one we don’t know how to pronounce,” she said, laughing as she hesitated over the name. “(And) this is a milkweed … butterfly milkweed.”

The mural will also feature a large monarch butterfly.

McClintock said she was drawn to art from a young age and developed that interest through her art classes in school. Atkinson said she was homeschooled before starting at Lawrence North and has taken “a ton” of art classes since then.

“It’s just a way of me, like, exploring my passion,” she said. “When I went to the National Art Honor Society, that was an even more profound way of exploring art.”

Hatley said she wasn’t that interested in art until the COVID-19 pandemic began.

“Since we were stuck inside, I found something to do and I really enjoyed it,” she said. “I just kept doing it. It’s just really relaxing and a good way to express myself.”

Masur, an elected member of the Lawrence Common Council and recently certified naturalist, monitors the students’ progress and helps them with questions about native plants.

“When they mapped out what they were doing, we … came out here and looked at the different plants,” she said, pointing to the wildflower meadow. “They know that sow thistle is the only plant that the monarch butterfly caterpillars can eat and how the populations have plummeted.”

Masur said the butterfly meadow is one of four in Lawrence’s public parks. The other three are at Jenn Park, 10450 E. 63rd. St.; Veteran’s Memorial Park, 12150 E. 62nd St.; and Richardt Park, 4510 N Richardt Ave.

“The Lawrence City Council gave $15,000 in 2021 to plant this and put up signage for different parks,” Masur said. “They planted about 25 different species of native (flowers) and five or six grasses. And the whole idea is that from May to October, there’s something blooming.”

And after October, the new mural will remind park visitors what will bloom again in the spring.

Hatley said students will continue to work on the mural through the 2024-2025 school year, but they expect it to be completed by the end of this calendar year.

National Art Honorary Society

According to the NAEA website, the National Art Honor Society was founded in 1978 by the National Art Education Association.

To qualify, high school students must have an A in art subjects, two teacher recommendations, a B average in other subjects, and have completed at least eight hours of arts-related community service.

The organization also offers a National Junior Art Honor Society for high school students.

Members of the National Art Honor Society are eligible for special programs, exhibitions, and scholarships.

For more information, visit arteducators.org/national-art-honor-societies.