GOODYEAR, Ariz.  — When Kassie Silva stepped up to speak at the commissioning of NextEra Energy Resources’ Pluto Energy Storage, she was standing before a mural she’d imagined, designed and painted herself. 

A high school senior in Goodyear, Silva grew up just miles from the site. She was born and raised in Arizona. 

“We’re not really travelers,” she says. “Arizona is my place. I know it like the back of my hand.” 

Art has always been her constant. As a child, she gravitated toward mixed media as a way to express what she was feeling and to capture the people she loved. While her parents are musicians rather than visual artists, creativity was always present at home. 

That early connection deepened over time. Silva became a fixture in her school’s theater program, eventually serving as head of set design and lighting director. This year, she earned a dream role—Eurydice in Hadestown, her favorite musical, which her school is currently producing with two alternating casts. 

“I’ve always been a theater kid,” she says. “Art is how I stay grounded, especially when everything else is changing.” 

Change is a central theme in Silva’s work, shaped by milestones on the horizon during her senior year—preparing for graduation, to leave home and attend college, where she intends to study theater production and design. As she looks ahead, art remains the throughline. 

“It’s a consistent,” she says. “Whenever I have doubts about what’s next, I come back to that.” 

That perspective was top of mind when Silva learned about an opportunity to design a mural for Pluto Energy Storage. She remembers sitting in art class with friends when she first heard about it, initially imagining the group might apply together. In the end, she decided to take it on herself. Teachers reviewed her ideas and offered feedback. One mentor, an art teacher who runs a nonprofit, even advised her on paint selection. 

Then came the call she’d been waiting for: she had won the scholarship. 

“I was trying so hard to sound calm on the phone,” she says. “But I couldn’t stop smiling.” 

After the call, she ran to tell her mother. Her parents helped gather supplies and move the mural panels around their backyard as she worked. 

Designing the mural became an exercise in balance. Silva initially explored more literal imagery—maps, figures and obvious symbols of community—but it felt too direct. She wanted viewers to pause and reflect, not be told what to think. 

The final composition centers on Arizona’s landscape, with canyon walls framing a city in the distance. What ties it together is a ribbon of yellow light flowing through the scene, inspired by shared energy moving outward. 

“That light changed everything,” she says. “It feels like the sun spreading across Arizona.” 

The mural includes the phrase, “Shine light even on the darkest places,” a message Silva hopes resonates beyond the artwork itself. To her, the light represents growth and resilience.  

Seeing the mural installed at Pluto Energy Storage made the message feel tangible. It’s a place people in the community see regularly. 

“Someone told me she drives by it daily and is excited to see it each time,” Silva says. “Those small moments matter. They last.” 

That sense of lasting impact was especially clear during the Pluto Energy Storage commissioning, when Silva was invited to speak about her work. As part of her rhetoric class, she regularly writes and delivers speeches, a skill that helped her prepare.   

“I was able to think back to the design process and focus on what I wanted people to take away,” she says. 

For Silva, that moment was about young artists having a place in conversations about community, infrastructure and the future. 

She takes that responsibility seriously. At school, she has already passed leadership of set design to younger students, intentionally mentoring underclassmen and encouraging them to consider careers in the arts. 

“When younger students ask questions, I get excited,” she says. “I want to pass on what I know.” 

As she prepares to leave for college, Silva knows her style will evolve. She looks forward to discovering how continued education will shape the way she sees and creates art. But she hopes the mural remains a reminder of this moment—for herself and others. 

“I want people to look back years from now and feel hope,” she says. “That it meant something to the community. That it helped someone think differently, even for a moment.” 

As a student standing at the edge of what comes next, seeing her work permanently displayed is something she doesn’t take lightly. 

“It’s a blessing,” Silva says. “To know that something I created is part of the community, and that it’s here to stay.”