Naperville parent paints 'magnificent' mural for kids in library
Joung Kyung Cho kneels on a stack of old sheets in the library media center at Clow Elementary School in Naperville where she is painting an elaborate bean stalk on a pillar.
The stalk at the bottom is grounded in reality — it shows the plant and leaves with insects growing in stages from a caterpillar to a cocoon to a butterfly. But the top is all fantasy — a castle in the clouds.
Cho, mother of Clow fifth-grader Sangin Kim, gets her inspiration from the children at the school, the books they read and the topics they study.
She's painting the pillar and a wall in the library as a volunteer project, but she didn't set out to showcase her artistic skills. Cho is on a quest to learn English, and even before she signed up for classes, she started volunteering at her son's school in Indian Prairie Unit District 204.
Cho began by tracing patterns to create bulletin boards for the main wall in the library. The process was a little “boring” for Cho's taste, as she said she's been drawing and painting since she was a little girl.
“I think everyone likes drawing — why not?” said Cho, a South Korea native who has lived in the U.S. for two years, all of that time in Naperville. “It's more easy than writing.”
Cho asked to paint something more permanent for the library wall instead of the monthly rotating bulletin boards, and Library Media Center Director Beverly Frett asked her to submit a sketch.
Drawing inspiration from children's books such as “Miss Rumphius” by Barbara Cooney and “Puff the Magic Dragon” by Eric Puybaret, she came up with something Frett called “magnificent.”
A boy, modeled after Cho's son, rides a dragon. A fairy sits atop a giant mushroom under a tree among rolling hills. A girl modeled after Cho's seventh-grade daughter, Jeein Kim, reads at the base of another tree, while other children read from their perch in a red, wooden treehouse.
“I think it's every child's dream to have a treehouse,” Cho said.
Clow Principal Sarah Nowak said the biggest benefit of Cho's painting has been her interactions with students.
“It's been neat to see students form a relationship with Joung,” Nowak said.
Frett said students also have learned about Cho's Korean heritage, even by asking simple questions like why her last name doesn't match her son's. Married women keep their last names in Korean tradition, Cho said.
“The children have learned a lot about the Korean culture because of that,” Frett said.
Cho has connected with second-grader Carrie Eum, with whom she can speak in Korean if she's at a loss for English words.
“She tells me many stories without me asking,” Cho said about Carrie.
“I talked about my vacation to Korea and Japan,” Carrie said.
Some students have gotten involved with the painting, too, like 6-year-old twins Valentina and Ariana Namdar, who helped paint ladybugs near the fairy and treehouse.
Seven-year-old budding artist Maggie Reck might point to work on the mural as her first public piece.
“I got to paint flowers,” Maggie said. “I'm going to be an artist when I grow up. I just draw weird shapes and then make them into something.”
Cho is hoping to finish the mural this month, but she can always find something new to add, like detail in the sky or wrinkles on children's clothes.
“The wall used to be blank with big paper displays that changed every month,” Frett said. “They were great and the kids liked the changes, but this is something that's memorable. This is a work of art.”