Mural Of Sharks On Wall

Mural in Oakville High School corridor presents history of earth

Oakville High School science teacher Jean Pfeifer isn't a huge fan of the institutional look.

"Schools look like dungeons," she said.

So Pfeifer decided to do something about it. About a decade ago, she approached school administrators and asked if her science students could paint a mural on the hallway walls.

"The idea was that it would tell a story," Pfeifer said.

That story is nothing less than the history of life on earth, written in paint along an Oakville hallway. The mural covers the early planetary atmosphere, the advent of multi-cellular organisms and sea creatures.

It will, Pfeifer hopes, eventually cover early humans, the discovery of fire and the progress of civilization right up to humans venturing into space. Right now, the mural is at the end of the Paleozoic Era, which began 542 million years ago.

Pfeifer isn't concerned about the mural's pace of production. That's because graduating senior Cody Summers just knocked out almost 300 million years of time in one semester.

Summers, 17, painted his way through the Paleozoic Era, which ended 251 million years ago, by working almost every day for as long as two hours. The Palezoic Era, which pre-dated dinosaurs, saw the introduction of scorpions, amphibians and land and marine reptiles before ending with a mass extinction event.

Summers relished the task of covering such a wide swath of the earth's history in paint.

"I did the entire Paleozoic Era, one big slab of time," Summers said.

Summers said he picked out "iconic" animals representative of the time to paint. Those animals included sharks, fish and amphibians.

Summers said he became interested in the mural after joining the school's science club.

"I always noticed this section of the mural was blank and I thought it would be cool to add my own touch," he said.

Summers decision helped revive the mural's prospects. After a flurry of initial enthusiasm, Pfeifer said no student had volunteered to paint for the last four years.

"Cody did an absolutely fantastic job," she said. "You have to find a student with courage to put work on the wall."

Pfeifer said that's no easy task.

"You do have to sign it," she said.

Pfeifer said the reluctance to paint the Paleozoic probably had little to do with the era's popularity.

"I have no idea what interests them," she said. "The ancient earth and molecules went the fastest. They drew a hemoglobin molecule and a strand of DNA.

Gorgeous Shark Wall Mural, Perfect for Home or Office — Office ...

I have a strange fascination with sharks. One of my daughters is so frightened of sharks she can’t even stand to look at a picture of a shark. When she saw Jaws, she didn’t even want to take a bath. Like all of my girls, I love my daughter more than I love my next breath but a devious part of me would love to have the wall mural above waiting for her the next time she walked through the living room!

What can I say, the delivery wasn’t a picnic.