Waves of paint: students gift Mill District with feminist mural

ARHS senior Ada Paessel and the Amherst Young Feminist Party are constructing a mural in the Mill District located in North Amherst that highlights the four waves of feminism and women’s history from the 1800s to the present day.

The piece is partially inspired by “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa,” by Japanese artist Hokusai, and features a woman’s profile with waves for hair. The mural also depicts protesters from over the years. “As the hair progresses and the waves grow bigger, so do the people in the image,” said Paessel. The mural also explains the four waves of feminism through common phrases and words of inclusion. 

The first wave is from the mid-1840s to 1920s (including women’s right to vote); the second is from the 1960s to the 1980s (including reproductive rights and access to education); the third wave is from the 1990s to 2010 (centered on an intersectional approach to women’s freedom); and the fourth wave is about the present day (including women rallying together to fight for rights that have been rolled back). 

The mural is painted on 4×8 wood composite panels and student artists are painting them with exterior acrylic house paint in 12 basic colors and using them to mix other colors.

Various students from the school and around the community are working on it, including juniors Arlyn Reiken and Rex Hanneke, seniors Marisol Pierce-Bonifaz, River Wolaver, Ruby Austin, and Zuleica Booth, as well as ARHS grad Julian Hynes (’24), supported by Cinda Jones, developer of the Mill District and the mural’s sponsor. “A lot of people are involved [with the volunteer art project],” said Paessel.

The idea of a feminist mural has existed for a while, Paessel said, “It floated around for a while a couple of years ago.” During the early stages, there were a lot of different designs on the table,  “Ultimately, it was a collaboration, but I completed the final design. It’s pretty cool,” Paessel said.

Paessel and a few other artists who are members of The Amherst Young Feminist Party have a long history of working on feminist projects, including rallies, educational programs, and analytical reports. Initially, the group went looking for a venue around Northampton and Amherst; after reaching out to the Mill District, Jones offered them the spot and the materials, encouraging them to adapt a mural idea she had started in 1986. “We went right to her and she had a lot of great input,” said Paessel. 

Paessel said they have the mural organized in a paint-by-numbers style. 

Women’s rights are important to Paessel. “It’s becoming more important, especially under the Trump administration,” she said. “Women’s rights are definitely going to come under fire a little bit, in terms of abortion rights and access to health care [including] contraceptives.” 

Paessel believes that it’s important to focus on art and education as solutions. “[The Amherst Young Feminist Party] has done some programs where we reach out to education centers and we host classes.” 

Paessel has been producing art for her entire life. Her father is also an artist, and so was her grandma on her father’s side. “Our basement was full of hundreds of my grandma’s paintings,” she said.

Paessel hopes that more people will become aware of the feminist movement and that their art will stir up conversation. “I hope it sort of makes people reflect on where we came from and the hard, hard work that has happened,” she said. 

For her, feminism is more important now than ever. “We’re sort of regressing into these old ways of thinking and harmful systems of government that people before us have fought so hard to abolish,” she said.