A new work of art at Tomlin Middle School inspires students to be the best Tigers they can be. The new mural in the cafeteria is thanks to a group of alumni from Plant City High School who wanted to give back to the campus they used to call home.
In 2013, Lynda Rogers Fuller, a 1960 graduate of Plant City High School, organized a reunion for alumni who graduated between 1956 and 1972. The event was highly attended, and there was money leftover, even after all of the expenses had been paid. Fuller got the idea to donate the extra sum to Tomlin Middle School, which was previously Plant City High School, the campus where most of these alumni had attended.
The Planters donated $1,000 to Tomlin and let Principal Susan Sullivan decide how to use the funds.
Sullivan approached Ric Edgemon, who teaches art at Tomlin, and asked him to use the donation to paint a large mural of a tiger in Tomlin’s cafeteria. There was an existing mural in the cafeteria, completed in 2004, but Sullivan wanted to continue improving the room’s aesthetic.
Edgemon, who is currently in his fifth year of teaching at Tomlin, spent two weeks during the summer of 2014 painting the new mural. He used digital software to create a montage of the tiger, text and foliage, and then projected his image onto the wall and sketched it out.
The mural is high up on the wall, but Edgemon’s mobile scaffold came to the rescue.
“It works just right. I’m able to get high enough to get the top without having to stretch too far,” Edgemon said.
Edgemon had previously painted six larger murals and a few smaller ones in Tomlin’s media center, featuring scenes that correspond with fantasy, natural science and other genres of the library’s collection. Painting on walls presents its own challenges, compared with Edgemon’s usual artistic media.
“It’s much more difficult to work on a surface that is not smooth,” he said.
The Plant City Planters will be hosting an open house for anyone in the community who wishes to see the mural, whether or not he or she has a connection to the alumni group.
Pat Ballard is organizing the open house. Though she was a Turkey Creek Gobbler, her husband was a Planter, and she is known for her event planning skills, particularly when it comes to reunions and similar gatherings.
“People can come and go as they want to,” Ballard said. “We’d love to have a lot of people show up to see it.”
IF YOU GO
Mural Open House
When: 6 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 24
Where: Tomlin Middle School cafeteria, 501 N. Woodrow Wilson St.
Details: Everyone is invited, whether or not they are Plant City Planters. There will be light refreshments.
Contact Catherine Sinclair at csinclair@plantcityobserver.com.