The finished mural from the fall 2025 fresco class (left) sits adjacent to the fall 2024 mural (right). Students looked to create a mural that showcased both the process of producing a fresco and the individuals who created the final product.
Editors’ Note: All photos were taken by Photo Editor James Shelton ’28
My visits to Old Tarble have been few and far between. Though I am an avid photographer, I have yet to fully immerse myself in the visual arts scene at Swarthmore — something I keep promising myself I will change when sophomore planning rolls around. But despite the cold, rainy weather on the afternoon of Dec. 10, 2025, I made the trek across campus to the building for the fresco painting class’s open studio event.
I first learned of the fresco showcase several weeks before, when I met one of the artists, Cayla Kushner ’27, by chance on a weeknight in Martin Hall. During our conversation, she suggested I attend the showcase and cover it for The Phoenix. Well, of course I would! I haven’t written many articles to date, and as such, I jumped at this chance to cover something completely new to me.
Some background: Painting III: Fresco Painting, as the class is formally known, has existed for three years to date, though the art form itself is centuries old. Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Mariel Capanna brings copious amounts of fresco experience to Swarthmore, having worked at the Fresco Barn of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in the summers. Fresco is a particularly intense form of painting that requires manual labor to mix wet plaster. This process limits artists to a small window of time to complete their work before the plaster dries. Last semester’s class, which consisted of nine students, was the second at Swarthmore to produce a floor-to-ceiling mural. Of course, when creating such large works, future wall real estate availability is a major concern. For this issue, Capanna offered two options: either the fresco would eventually be buried by another artwork years in the future or the mural could be relocated in a process called “strappo.” “I’d say, stay tuned. These [murals] are quasi-permanent,” she added.
Below is a gallery of photos from the class showcase on Dec. 10, 2025.
William Gomez ’27 and Ava Babcock ’27 give a short presentation to visitors overviewing the general process of fresco painting and the creation of the mural. “Fresco, in terms of collaborative work and working together, is definitely a very nice medium to work with a lot of people,” said Gomez in an interview. “The passion that you see around the community is what really made this process of making this mural possible.” Reference photos of other famous frescoes hang on the wall of the studio. Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Mariel Campanna explained in an interview that the class started off by learning about the history of and materials used in fresco compositions.Small studies of frescoes made on burlap that were produced during the first half of the semester were placed on display in the center of the room.Cayla Kushner ’27 explains to visitors that the class also refined its fresco skills by producing paintings on small panels during the first half of the semester.
Many of the small frescoes on display featured a technique called “sgraffito,” where multiple layers of differently colored slip were applied and scratched off of paintings’ surfaces to create multilayered textures.
Attendees of the showcase were able to contribute to a shared small panel fresco. A floor-to-ceiling display shows the final sketch of the mural, created by Cayla Kushner ’27 and Logan Roth ’27, as well as the reference photos used for the sketch. A map of the mural’s sketch assigned individual giornatas, or sections that can be completed in “a day’s work,” to pairs of students at specific times. “Outside of [Ava], everyone painted a different person,” said Logan Roth ’27, “And I think that that collaboration of interpreting someone else, but in your own way, yet keeping it cohesive, was probably the best part overall.” A whiteboard at the back entrance to Old Tarble served as the community information board, determining what food would be purchased for the showcase, what music would be played during class, and when a post-semester class dinner would be scheduled. “There were days that we were all in here until three in the morning, cramming our assignments before they were due on Friday,” commented Paris Kampel ’27 on the class community.
