Bringing a Little Color to Harry’s Hardware
What started as a blank wall on the deck at Harry’s Hardware has turned into something special. Thanks to the creativity of two Cabot School high school students, Freya Van Deusen and Molly Paire, the space now features a bright, colorful mural that captures the beauty of our small Vermont town.
This past spring, we built a privacy wall at the end of the deck near the river. With the wall in place, I saw an opportunity — what if this could be a chance to showcase Cabot and Vermont through art? I’d never taken on a project like this before, but I knew of a couple talented students at the high school who might be bold enough to take on this project and create something meaningful – something that illustrates what Cabot means to them and this community. I was excited when Freya and Molly agreed to take it on.
A little more ambitious than they first expected, we worked together to shape a vision: what could represent Vermont, and more specifically, how could we capture Cabot in a mural? We decided to start with an outline of the state and weave the four seasons within it meanwhile capturing symbols the girls felt were important to people that live here. From there, the girls took off — beginning with a rough sketch on paper before free handing the design directly onto the blank wall. A week later, armed with over 25 shades of paint, they got to work bringing the mural to life.
It was important to me that this project be a learning experience for Freya and Molly — not just about art, but about process: trial and error, time management, and meeting expectations for themselves and for someone they were working with. The time commitment surprised them, and there were stretches of both intense progress and quiet pause. But when the deadline arrived, they delivered something remarkable — an original piece that truly captures the vibrancy of Cabot and Vermont.
The mural was unveiled during a celebration that brought together the student artists, their classmates, and community members. The event included a conversation with Freya and Molly about their creative process, what inspired their design, and how it felt to see their work completed and shared with the community.
The mural weaves the four seasons around an outline of the state of Vermont. If you look closely, you can identify important symbols - Lake Champlain, a dairy farm in the spring in Cabot, a Sugarhouse, the “Foster Bridge” in Cabot, and a train leaving White River Junction. But beyond those symbols are special details from kayakers to cows to sailboats and skiers, but there are is also a farmer yodeling to his cows and a witch on a broomstick flying over the sugarhouse in autumn. A beautiful piece of art that tells you a different story every time you look at it closely.
The project grew out of a shared desire to connect local youth with meaningful opportunities to create and contribute within their own town. The mural now stands as a reminder of how much creativity lives here in Cabot — and what can happen when young people are given space and encouragement to express it.
Over time, Harry’s Hardware has become a place where people enjoy being together — for music, conversation, and connection. To me, this new mural is a reflection of that same spirit. It celebrates the creativity that runs through Cabot and highlights what’s possible when we give our young people the chance to share their talents.
