By City Times staff

WISCONSIN RAPIDS – On May 10, Our Lady Queen of Heaven unveiled a new mural in the school’s cafeteria.

“The old mural had somewhat mistakenly been painted over to the great dismay of Fr.Valentine and many of the children.  I was asked by a school employee, Gina Steidel, if I would be interested in painting a new mural of Jesus and the children,” muralist, Dawn Olson explained.

“After some research I accepted the request and began searching for suitable models.  Some models posed live and some were photographed as the composition began to take form.”

The scene depicts Jesus in a scenic landscape with a girl and a boy under his protection.  One lamb is in his lap while another stands at his feet, while calla lilies in the foreground symbolize innocence.

The unveiling event offered K-2 students a chance to ask questions about the mural creation process.

“I started out with a cartoon, so I could kind of get an idea of the composition of what I wanted,” Olson explained to the students.

“Then I had to pick models, so we found some neighborhood children who live by me and volunteered to be models for me. So, then I had to do a photo shoot with them.”

Olson had her husband drape a red tablecloth over him to see how the fabric would flow and used a stuffed animal to see how the children’s fingers would mold around the lamb.

“I wanted them to look like they could be from anywhere in the world; so, one has darker skin and darker hair for different ethnicities, (and the other) has lighter skin and lighter hair,” she explained.

“To me, it was important that all of God’s children know that God loves them.

She said that the next step was deciding what to paint the mural on. She ultimately opted for two canvases bolted together and mounted on the cafeteria wall.

Several parishioners and their families are helping fund the mural.

Olson grew up in Colby, but lives in the Wisconsin Rapids area, where her children attended Assumption schools.