First year student, Isaac Swartz, participates in the painting of a mural on TJC campus as part of Homecoming Week.

Breezy, cooler weather Wednesday morning didn’t stop Tyler Junior College students and faculty members from taking part in an interactive mural project between Genecov Science Building and the Earth and Space Science Center on the TJC central campus.

“We are doing a ‘be a part of the art experience’ for our students as a part of homecoming week and have a spirit wall as a fun photo opportunity to celebrate not only homecoming but our eclipse coming up, both the partial and the complete total,” said Lauren Tyler, director of Student Life at TJC.

Designed by alumna and East Texas muralist Odessa Helm, the mural incorporates this year’s theme for Homecoming Week — “3, 2, 1 … The Countdown Has Begun” — with the partial solar eclipse that will occur prior to Saturday’s homecoming football game in Rose Stadium.

“We really wanted to highlight (the solar eclipse) because that’s what is happening this year,” Helm said.

This Saturday, Oct. 14, several states, including Texas, will be able to view the annular eclipse, which happens every one or two years. For this eclipse to occur, the moon must get in between the earth and the sun, but it doesn’t entirely block the sun’s light. The visual effect looks like a ‘ring of fire.’

“We included football, the Apache flags and everything,” Helm said. “We also included Harry the Hawk so that he makes his appearance.”

Harry the Hawk was adopted as TJC’s mascot at the 2022 homecoming pep rally.

“With it being a part of homecoming, it’s just another way for students to feel a part of it,” Tyler said. “This is a different way than maybe what we’ve had in the past and it’s just icing on the cake that we have an alum here to lead us in this.”

Helm graduated from TJC in 2018 and was a member of the faculty for three years before she decided to become a full-time muralist.

“I loved working at TJC but I wanted to do painting full time,” she said.

Whether it was the solar eclipse or Harry the Hawk, keeping the school spirit was the goal.

“Everybody’s done a really good job,” Helm said on Wednesday morning. “It’s kind of crazy to me the amount that’s gotten done already because people have just kind of jumped into it instead of just walking by.”

Helm came up with the drawing herself after discussing some ideas with Tyler and her staff, and then submitted the sketch to be approved.

“They gave me a few little revisions feedback and I made some tweaks and then we approved the design and then started painting,” Helm said. “The whole idea was to make it personal.”

Usually taking several weeks to put together a mural project, Helm came up with this one in a matter of days.

“The only thing that we really changed was the sky because I had it as blue skies at first but with the solar eclipse… the feedback was to change it to look more like space and then add the glasses on (Harry the Hawk),” Helm said. “The process was super quick and easy though. It’s always really fun because sometimes we have a drawing block — like a writer’s block — but this one… it just flowed.”

Students and faculty didn’t have to be an artist to participate, especially since Helm sketched the mural to make it look like ‘paint-by-numbers.’

“A ton of people have walked by and said ‘I’m coming back after class’ or ‘I’ll come back later this afternoon’ so it’s been great to have so many students come up and help paint and do the whole process with me,” Helm said.

The inaugural project had many of the students and faculty walking by the Spirit Wall and grabbing a paintbrush.

“It’s just really fun to see some of the students who are staying for a long time and some of them are just, like, ‘I just want to do a few strokes and be a part of it,’” Tyler said. “But I’m excited to see how it looks by the end of the day.”