Shark School Cosmos

Completed in the Fall of 2024, this ceiling mural was commissioned by South Portland Schools through the State of Maine’s Percent-for-Art program. A wall text at the entrance to the corridor reads:

If you stand right here, turn around and look up, you will see a school of sharks in silhouette. They were originally supposed to be a pod of whales. That would have been good too.

Then in the spring of 2023, while this school was still under construction, its future students chose a shark to be their mascot. The ceiling mural directly behind you is intended as a special welcome to all new students of this school community.

Welcome Sharks!

Here are some good things to know about sharks:

  1. Sharks are not one thing. Over 500 species of sharks swim in the world's oceans.

  2. Many sharks are social animals. Some have been observed to form lastng friendships. Sharks cooperate, even sometimes in groups of more than one species.

  3. There are many excellent names for a group of sharks, including a shiver, a frenzy or a terror. A group that includes more than one kind of shark is usually called a school. The name of this mural is Shark School Cosmos.

  4. Sharks swim in all of the world’s oceans. In biological terms, sharks exhibit a high degree of cosmopolitanism.

Cosmopolitanism is another word for global citizenship. Species are said to be cosmopolitan if they live in many different places throughout the world. Humans, like sharks and whales, are a cosmopolitan species.

The root of the word cosmopolitanism is cosmos. It is an ancient concept of the universe as a well-ordered system. It presumes that all things can in theory, be made clear.

The mural on the ceiling directly behind you is an example of something called anamorphosis. Anamorphosis is an optical illusion by which an image becomes clear only when viewed from a key viewpoint, from a unique angle or through a particular lens. These sharks, like so many things, look different from different points of view.

Any way you look at it, this mural is a heartfelt welcome to South Portland Middle School. It is an encouragement to be courageous. It is a call to curiosity and an invitation to wonder. Lots of wonderful things are waiting for you here.