OTHS Junior makes art out of Hemingway

OTHS junior Renee Shina with her mural painting based on Ernest Hemingway’s “Old Man And The Sea.”

 June 15, 2006

Except for a pair of opaque white fairy wings attached to her shoulders, OTHS junior Renee Shina looks a lot like the other students at Old Town High School. She’s small, with bright, intense eyes, and a ready smile. The wings, she explains, are just something she wears to make people smile. She then goes on to explain about the mural, which takes up one whole side of the wall next to the blackboard in Rosemary Canney’s junior English classroom. A pickerel caught, stuffed, and mounted by classmate Dan Dykstra hangs on the other side of the blackboard.

Dykstra’s pickerel, which was featured in a previous issue of The Penobscot Times, was inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s classic work “On Walden Pond”, which Dykstra read in Canney’s class. Shina’s mural is also the result of classroom inspiration.

“I read ‘Old Man and the Sea’ by Ernest Hemingway,” Shina said. “Something about Santiago’s story made me think about biblical concepts of good and evil.”

Shina’s mural is awash with biblical references. A raven and a dove flank a grim-faced Santiago as he struggles to reel in his nemesis fish from the depths of a roiling, white-capped ocean. Shina’s ability to depict lifelike scenes is evident in the work, but there is also a whimsical touch that keeps the scene within the realm of fantasy. It’s clear that Shina has the instincts of a born artist.

“I’d like to go on to art school after I graduate next year,” she said. “We’ll have to see if it works out. But I would love to go.