Margaret Haven of Haven Studios contracted in the early 1990s to design and create murals for the school cafeterias in and around the Annapolis area. These schools varied from elementary to high school. The murals had to be completed during the summer vacation. Sometimes as many as 3 to 5 cafeterias were completed in a 10 week period.

These murals were not intended to be detailed masterpieces, but big colourful images with a theme that would appeal to the kids. While the designs were not in Eva’s personal style, she had an important skill requirement: she could adapt and paint in whatever style a design required, so the completed rooms looked consistent as a whole.

Margaret designed and produced colour scale drawings of the murals; the drawings were then drawn to scale on the walls and painted. Eva claimed to have no talent for the measuring required to draw to scale, but had a wonderful talent for rendering and could work at a great pace.

She would transfer the design of a tiger to the wall, trace it and render it in about 45 minutes. Her friend was amazed, expecting one of these big cat heads to take anywhere up to two hours to complete, given the detail, and the impression it had to give at a distance.

Since the work was being done during the summer break when school was not in session, the air conditioning was off and they often had to endure the high summer heat while meeting tight deadlines. So they borrowed huge floor fans from wherever they could, put wet cold scarves around their necks and worked on. Eva preferred to protect her hair in a scarf or sometimes wore a baseball cap back-to-front so she could see what she was doing.

There were days when nothing seemed to go right for her, days when she seemed moody. On these few days she had difficulty painting in the style required. Her mind seemed to be in a different world. During her lunch break she might walk to the farthest corner of the cafeteria and sit quietly eating her lunch in solitude. Everybody knew to leave her alone then. Eventually in her own time she would join the others.

Frequently something unexpected would happen to pull her out of her mood. Once during an "off" day she gave a great "WAAHH!" , and everyone turned to see Eva on a ladder, looking down at her can of red paint splattered all over the floor sheet under her. After great shouts of laughter, her spirit lifted.

Eva identified with the children who would use the cafeteria and see the murals. On a underwater mural Eva had to paint an octopus. At this point Eva was already undergoing medical tests and found it difficult to work on ladders. So she did a lot of detailed work at eye level. She had fun completing this particular octopus (nobody could paint octopus eyes quite like Eva. When you see them close up you will notice that they have a very distinct expression ). When she was finished she laughed and said, "This one’s for the kids", adding that the adults wouldn't even notice. When her colleagues took a closer look at what Eva had painted, they saw the little air bubbles drifting up not from the octopus’ ‘mouth’, but from his bottom. In true Eva style she had given the kids something secretly delightful, and a private little joke to share.

When her illness limited her painting and she had to use crutches, she still insisted on coming in. She spent her sit-down time teaching the other painting assistant the subtler aspects of rendering, giving advice and encouragement. She said she preferred the quiet focus on painting and talking when she felt like it, to sitting at home.

It is great that Eva Cassidy choose to make a career in music. But clearly, had she chosen art, she would have had a future as a very gifted visual artist.

School Murals

We have been asked to provide more details about the school murals Eva worked on. Margaret Haven has kindly provided these extracts from her notes at the time.

School murals by Haven Studios
Anne Arundel County

Arundel M.S. 6/95
"Rainforest" theme
Bulkhead; entire back wall:9x50L; side walls; Cats over cafeteria doors
(hired Eva-her first mural with me- detailed foliage on back wall, blue/black birds and all cat heads)

Crofton M.S. 1995
12/96: (Christmas break) "1950's Main St." Theme
52' x 7.5'- Entire length of cafeteria wall from table height up. Gas station, record shop, dress shop, soda shop, theatre, hardware etc. all detailed, including people.
(hired Eva and K…. Eva detailed soda shop architecture, detailed inside soda shop and most of dress shop manikins. K…. worked on signs)

Corkran M.S. 7/95
"Caribbean" theme
2 walls, each 14L: one with trees, turtles, beach and water etc, one with heron, trees, water etc.
9x14L back panel w/ pink flamingos etc
Entire front-Palm border
(hired Eva-detailed side wall with lizard,turtle etc. + painted background for other side wall)

Severn River M.S. 8/95
"Underwater" theme
14 w x 5.5 high + refrig etc, around corner to inside walls; Side walls large fish; shells above doors,
(hired Eva- detailed swordfish, octapus and 3d swimmer, large fish on side walls, some fish and water on back refrig) I could have large fish mixed up with another. Two underwaters had large side fish. Eva painted first ones.

Magothy M.S. 8/95
underwater..similar to Severn but different
(hired Eva and G…. who blocked in color, Eva detailed back wall and refrig w/octopus, some fish)

Andover M.S. 12/95 (now called something else)
Global plane route
entire wall and side walls
Back panel
(hired Eva who detailed misc stuff.)

Annapolis M.S. 6/96
Castle/Dragon theme.
19' wide x 8' hi dragon
Cafeteria: castle (42' x 8)covering windows/doors w/ soldiers on parapets, flags etc.
Kitchen: Bulkhead w/more castle w/flags, 2 side walls 4x8 w "Repunzil" etc
(hired Eva, (V… 1-2 days) Eva detailed dragon head, helped with stone wall)

McArthur M.S. 7/96
Cafeteria: Spectators in stadium above, stadium fence below on glass, signs on fence
42' wide x 8' high (began 9'and up)
(hired Eva- detailed some spectators and fence)

Chesapeake M.S. 8/96
(2 kitchens)
"Underwater" theme
main wall: 15' X 5' +refrigs etc.
2 side walls: "St. Thomas Pointe Lighthouse" and "Bay Bridge"
(hired Eva & G…… Eva detailed part of main wall, G…. drew to scale and blocked in some base colors) This was the last mural Eva worked on. She was already quite ill.

Van Bokkelin Elementary 8/96
"Underwater" theme
14-16' Dolphin on Cafeteria wall
Kitchen: entire back and side walls underwater
Fish border around kitchen area
(first mural without Eva-who was then too sick to work any longer hired G….. who helped block in color and painted fish border. We listened to "Live at Pearls" (an unreleased Eva concert ed.) we sent her prayers and reminisced and cried through the whole thing)………………......

Please click on the Eva's Art button to read more about Eva's art and visit the special website run by Eva's sisters Margret and Anette, all about Eva the painter.