Seoul American High School junior Sara Wilson accents the mural she helped create for the 94th Military Police Battalion at Yongsan Garrison. (Joseph Giordono / S&S)
Seoul American High School junior Sara Wilson accents the mural she helped create for the 94th Military Police Battalion at Yongsan Garrison. (Joseph Giordono / S&S)
Seoul American High School Students (l to r) Peter Orrahood, Jonathan Yi, and Sara Wilson put the finishing touches on a mural they helped create for the 94th Military Police Battalion at Yongsan Garrison. (Joseph Giordono / S&S)
YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — Before the Seoul American High School art students could finish their first work — a mural for the 94th Military Police Battalion — more potential patrons have come calling.
“We got other units lining up, asking for you,” Sgt. Ryan Walker, of the 94th’s Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, told the students.
For the last six weeks or so, five students from the high school’s studio arts program have worked with acrylics and other tools to put a battalion mural on what was once an ugly, blank wall in the headquarters building.
Working from a design suggested by the MPs, the students have created a mural festooned with slogans like “Protect the Force” and “When In Need.” Each of the battalion’s four companies is represented in the design, with the central theme being “an angry-looking polar bear.”
“The sergeant major was sick of in-processing people in front of a big old dirty wall, so we called over to the school to see if they could help us out,” Walker said.
“We wanted to give the new guys a good impression when they come check in for the first time.”
For the students, it’s a chance to get out of the studio and spend some time on a unique project. Depending on their class schedule — SAHS, like many schools now, alternates classes each day — the students spend a few hours two or three days a week working on the mural.
“The MPs wanted to get some of the higher art classes to do the mural, some of the more advanced students,” said SAHS senior Peter Orrahood.
“So we volunteered. It’s been a lot of fun. The hardest part has been doing the letters, because they take so much time.”
Along with Orrahood, Will Parker, Sara Wilson, Jonathan Yi and Kyra Toffey all contributed to the work.
Late last week, as the group put the finishing touches on the 94th MP Battalion’s logo, an important final decision was still up in the air: Where should the artists sign their creation?
After a few joking suggestions that they scrawl their names over top of the whole thing, they decided on a small corner of the wall.
