Family’s labor of love lifts up local church

SWAMPSCOTT – The once-drab children’s rooms at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lynn are being transformed, thanks to the Chapman family of Lynn.Eddie and Suzanne Chapman, along with their sons, Danny and Derek, are painting bright, colorful and meaningful murals on the walls of two rooms in the church.The church approached the Chapmans, church members for over 15 years, about the project, and the family was excited by the opportunity.”This is the first time we’re all worked together,” said Suzanne Chapman. “In the beginning it was a little difficult. There was a little friction. Four different people with four different approaches. But we have fun.”Ocean Breeze Nursery School uses the rooms during the week. On weekends the areas serve as the children’s worship rooms for Sunday school.The first room’s mural depicts various ecosystems of the earth: it starts in the Arctic, moves on to the Pacific Northwest, then to the tropics and lastly to an African desert. The other room features a mural with faces of children from around the world, painted in a stylized manner.”We have several artistic styles, but it works,” said Suzanne. “There are several scenes, and we put a little bit of ourselves in it.””We wanted to show the children that we are all members of this enormous global community of both people and ecosystems,” said Rebecca Kelley-Morgan, Director of Lifespan Religious Education for the church. “The church has decided to redesign the children’s Sunday worship? We want to speak to children in a language they can understand.”Carol Kusinitz of Religious Education approached the Chapmans, and Eddie then made some preliminary sketches. Due to his talent of drawing faces, Danny is painting the multicultural mural mostly on his own, while Derek, Suzanne, and Eddie are tackling the environment scene. Derek has a gift for drawing animals, so many were added during the process. Everything from moose and a hippopotamus to meerkats and birds appear on the walls.”Artistic projects tend to grow and expand,” said Eddie. “We’ve added things, changed things. We’re using our artistic license.”Suzanne, who is also a Sunday school teacher at the church, is very excited about the results.”I’ll be glad to be (teaching) in this room after this. This will be the happy room,” she said.Derek and Danny have been members of Raw Arts in Lynn since they were 10 years old. Together, the two brothers have helped create murals for the YMCA youth center in Lynn, Lynn City Hall, as well as New England Biolabs in Ipswich. Danny graduated from Lynn English in 2007 and hopes to start art school in the near future. Derek will be a junior at Lynn English this year.Other members of the church are very excited about the project as well.”Everybody has been in here and says ‘Oh, this is so interesting,'” said Suzanne. “Everybody loves it, especially the young people.”The nursery school sessions will begin soon with all painting to be completed by then. While there is still some work to be done, everyone has a positive attitude.”This has been a labor of love for the whole family,” said Eddie. “We’re having fun.”