Tucked away in the back corner of Huntington Beach High School (HBHS) are several shipping containers used for storage that sat plain and unnoticed until earlier this school year, when Matthew Harward’s art class began a four-month project to cover the containers with murals painted by students, ranging from freshmen to seniors. The murals feature a variety of subjects including wrestlers, a track runner, butterflies and cityscapes.
Matthew Harward, an HBHS art teacher, said the project began after Principal Morris suggested using the containers as canvases. Harward said, “[Morris] said ‘well, let’s do these shipping containers because they’re ugly.’”
The project ran from Oct. 24, 2025, through Feb. 6. Harward said every student in his class created a mural concept before several designs were selected for the containers.
The project included students from grades 9-12 and gave students opportunities to collaborate with one another. He said, “You have the older kids working with the younger kids, the advanced artists working with the beginning artists.”
One of the murals was created by sophomore artist David Metts, whose design featured professional wrestlers. Metts said, “The main inspiration in short was capturing these wrestlers’ likeness and character on screen and putting it into the form of a mural.”
(Theo Sullivan)
Painting the containers also brought challenges. Metts said, “The crate was super dirty so I was painting over spider webs and stuff.” He recalled how part of the mural had to be rearranged after a metal box on the container interfered with the design.
Harward said the murals changed the appearance of the campus. He said, “They look wonderful. They look amazing, in my opinion… [they] beautify the school.”
Sophomore student Hayleigh Stinson, who recently noticed the murals during a track practice, said the murals stood out because of the effort students put into them. She said, “I’ve never seen student creativity go this far.”
The murals stand as a lasting display of creative student collaboration in a part of campus that once remained unnoticed. Harward said, “I hope to see more.”
