Have you ever seen the massive murals scattered around Macon Middle School? If so, have you ever wondered about them? Well, that’s why we’re here to answer those wonders for you!
The master artist who placed his artwork around the school is in fact our very own Mr. Bell, who took careful time to do each one of the murals with patience. How much time you may ask? It took Mr. Bell about a month to do each one of the three murals in the commons, with a year break for the final one. These murals took longer than any other ones he has done in this school.
He chose Albert Einstein, Hank Aaron and Dolores Huerta. Why those people though? Well, Mr. Bell stated it took multiple meetings to fully decide who the administration wanted, and why. That’s when they finally decided to paint the most inspirational people who went through many hardships to get to where they are today. These murals are meant to inspire Macon Middle School students to follow their dreams and do what it takes to get to where they want to be. Even if it is hard, they are meant to inspire kids to keep on going through hard times and never give up.
Mr. Bell’s mindset going into this was, ‘what was it going to take to get these murals done?’ Since they were such big murals he needed a ladder to be able to paint them and have enough paint. His biggest challenge was painting the brick wall. Everything had to be pre-planned about where to put what, so that it worked on the brick…there was no option for messing up. He knew if he messed up, he had to make it work.
He is proud to have his art scattered around Macon Middle School for all of the students to see and generations to come. Mr. Bell stated that his family all went to school here so it is meaningful for him to see these paintings and leave a mark on this school. “The walls at school are covered with Mr. Bell’s paintings. He is my cousin, so it’s like walking through a museum made by my family,” Blake Bell (8).
