When UAB sophomore Charlie Pommerenck submitted her artwork for a mural contest she wasn’t expecting to be selected or aiming for perfection. She just wanted her design to be honest.
“It’s actually a piece I originally made when I was 15,” she said, referencing the brightly-colored underwater scene now splashed across the stairwell of the UAB Chemistry Building. “I’d just returned home from Puerto Rico, and that trip was one of the first times I really felt peace. My home life wasn’t easy at the time, but I remember snorkeling and thinking, this is beautiful. So, I painted how I felt.”
Pommerenck’s mural, “Reconcile Peace,” joins a growing series of public art installations around campus through the Live HealthSmart Alabama (LHSA) Stairway to Wellness Initiative. Led by Holly Wyatt, M.D., and Michele Gould, MPH, the project intends to uses student art to encourage physical activity by bringing beauty to campus stairwells. This new installation in the Chemistry Building is fifth of a planned 11 total.
Pommerenck, now a junior neuroscience major with plans of attending med school, doesn’t plan to pursue art professionally. “I love art. But I want to be a doctor. I don’t want to sell art, I want to come home to it.”
But that doesn’t mean she takes art lightly. The mural was a labor of love, having spent over a month completing it, working long hours in the stairwell. She even dealt with a paint-spill and a lingering internal debate over one tiny black line that wasn’t supposed to be there.
“I saw the mistake later and thought, I should fix that. I even planned to bring my own paint,” she said. “But then I thought, the mistake itself is art.”
When asked why she chose to submit a piece from when she was younger, Pommerenck explained that her art style has evolved over the years: “Shading and detail don’t translate well on concrete.” So, she chose the piece with emotional resonance and bold simplicity. Bright, coral-reef colors and fish. A serene girl drifting underwater.
“She’s not sad,” Pommerenck said. “She’s just still. That’s how I felt then: like I was at the bottom, but still at peace.”
For Pommerenck, the real prize was the opportunity to bring her work to life on a grander scale.
“I tell my friends [about it] and they can’t believe I was the one who did the mural. They all love it,” she says. “And now every time I pass the Chemistry Building, I get to say, ‘I did that.’ And that feels good.”
Interested in creating a mural on campus? Submit here.