School gym wall doubles as an art canvas
One knight glaring from a huge, new mural in the gymnasium at Christian Liberty Academy is strategically placed to intimidate basketball opponents when they shoot free throws, says David Bergquist, the artist.
Bergquist is in charge of security at the Arlington Heights school, but he wears a lot of other hats, including an occasional art teacher.
Formerly known as the "girls gym" back when the building housed Arlington High School, the school has since removed a stage that jutted four feet into the room and made the space large enough to be a regulation gymnasium, said Steve Rowland, athletic director.
"We put up drywall and just had a white wall there. Dave saw a canvas and said he wanted to paint a mural," said Rowland.
Bergquist has been working on the mural for more than a year and figures he has painted about 450 hours-sometimes all night - because he had to do it when the gym was not in use.
The school mascot is a Charger or horse, and Bergquist depicts four of them galloping forward from a castle with knights on their backs. Their colors are the school's colors, royal blue and white.
Bergquist, who uses a boom lift to reach the painting, is almost finished. He needs to paint some shadowing and the legs of one horse.
Two students, Marc Lazarescu of Rolling Meadows, who just graduated, and Hijiri Aikawa of Palatine, who will be in ninth grade this fall, helped paint the stones on the lower part of the picture.
Jeff Morello, the school's art teacher, served as a consultant, said Bergquist.
The gymnasium is called Faith, which fits with the name Grace, given years ago to Arlington High School's main gymnasium to honor an athletic director. The public school closed in 1984.
Bergquist is also in charge of painting murals in the school's halls with directional signs, saying things like "Cafeteria 256 feet" and "Grace Gym 235 feet."
"I had no idea the mural was going to turn out like this," said Rowland. "Everybody loves it. When parents come in here they are amazed."