When the doors open at McDowell Mountain Elementary School on Tuesday, Aug. 6, students and parents might notice their eyes being drawn to some new art on the walls.

The artist responsible for these new eye-catching pieces is Megan Junk, a longtime Fountain Hills resident and current parent of an FHUSD student.

Junk has being working on her murals around the MMES campus for the past year and has worked throughout the summer to finish them by the time school kicks back up.

Junk has offered her services to McDowell Mountain at no charge, finding the work itself to be rewarding enough.

“I don’t know what someone would charge to do this but I can only imagine,” Junk said. “I can’t donate thousands of dollars but I can do this. It has been so much fun for me because this is the biggest canvas I’ve worked with.”

Junk got her start in the art world here in town when she was younger.

“There was a gallery down by the park and I sold my art there,” Junk said. “But as time went on I moved on to different things, like the community center; I did the women’s bathroom there over 20 years ago. I have always been doing something with art.”

During the year Junk spent painting her murals, which range from zoo animals reminding students of proper bathroom hygiene to word art of the school’s character counts traits, she has got the chance to interact more closely with the MMES community.

“The kids, it has been really fun, they like to stop and ask questions about the paint,” Junk said. “They ask about how I do this and that. It is really exciting. Art, you don’t want that to go away from the school.”

Besides keeping the arts alive in the school Junk hopes that her work will be reflective of the hard work MMES staff accomplishes every day.

“They (staff) run this school and you know they care, you can really tell,” Junk said. “Sometimes things fall by the wayside when you’re so focused on other things, so to come in and help out has been a pleasure.”

Junk is already in talks with Fountain Hills Middle school principal James Carrick to do work at that campus, too.