Completed math mural result of many hours of work

On it are five influential mathematicians — Euclid, Euler, Gauss, Leibniz and Mandelbrot. On the bottom left is a Falcon logo; on the right is a signal tower, representing the connections between math, our school and the community.

After four months of designing, planning, preparing and painting, a Math Quad mural designed by freshman Lillian Zeng was completed on Jan. 5.

Zeng spent almost all of her Thanksgiving break in the Math Quad, working more than 12 hours on most days.

“It took many days from 10:30 [a.m.] in the morning to [midnight]  in the Math Quad to complete it,” Zeng said. “I’m excited that it’s finally coming to an end.”

She said she completed the mural with the help of “a few math club people, some of [her] friends that [she] bugged to participate and a couple of people [she didn’t] really know, who showed up to help due to math teacher PJ Yim's advertising.” Volunteers included freshmen Caitlyn Chen,

Hannah Fan and Tiffany Huang and juniors Lily Hu, Chris McMahon and Joyce Zhang.

The process started with power-washing the wall and painting it with white primer. The volunteers then helped Zeng outline basic shapes over a projection of her design. Afterwards, they applied the larger blocks of color and worked their way to more and more detail. For the purple section, they first painted the purple background and then projected the design onto the wall again and used paint pens to add the white design on top.

Looking back on Zeng’s meticulous lines and detailed painting, students have noted the beauty of the new mural — a perfect addition to the Math Quad.

“I think that [the mural] adds a nice pop of color to the quad, making it [less] dreary [than] before,” Huang said. “[The mural is] different since it's a student produced work and I think it shows how important and how prevalent math is in our school culture and society in general.”

Although Zeng sees the mural as a success, the painting wasn’t without its challenges.

“This [was] my first time doing something this big so I made a few mistakes like buying too much of one color, not enough of another color or a color I didn't end up needing,” Zeng said. “I guess if I had the chance to do this again, I don't think I'd make those same mistakes.”

Nevertheless, Zeng and her peers are proud of the results of their hard work.

“I hope that the mural will let people think of the Math Quad as a happier place, not the corner of campus for a subject that they hate,” Huang said. “People should be able to stand there and admire it, and think that the quad is now a brighter place, along with hopefully seeing that math isn’t as boring and painful as most people make it out to be.”