St. Clement Unveils Mural By Local Artist

St. Clement Parish in Boonville unveiled a priceless addition to its religious education wing on Sept. 10 - a mural painted by Oakdale Elementary art teacher Elyse Rumble.  Rumble, a parishioner of St. John the Baptist parish in Newburgh, was approached a year ago by Katie Vollmer, religious education director for St. Clement Parish.

“I hadn’t ever done anything like this before,” Rumble said. “It took me a year to figure out how I was going to go about accomplishing it, but I got it done.”

It took almost a full year to first prepare the space and paint over the stark white walls.  Rumble started adding the people and details in June - and from that point, the mural progressed quickly.

Vollmer had an idea of which stories she wanted to be displayed in each section of the hallway, giving Fuchs an outline to follow.  “We worked together to see how we wanted it to look, and of course I put my own spin on some of it,” Rumble said.

Scenes from the Bible depicted within the mural include creation, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark, Moses with the tablets and the burning bush, Daniel in the lion’s den, Moses parting the seas, Jonah and the whale, the Nativity, Zacchaeus climbing a tree, Jesus and the children, the last supper, the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ.

Rumble said she started the project with apprehension because she had never completed a painting of that magnitude. Her mural at St. Clement Parish has already gotten her attention and future work from Oakdale Elementary, where the physical therapy department has commissioned her to paint some special areas in the building.  Judging from the positive reaction of the St. Clement community, that may only be the beginning.

“When I first started, I thought there’s no way I’d ever do this again,” Rumble recalled. “But now that it’s finished, I love it and am so proud of it! It would be great to do it again.”