Comenius Hall 2022 30 x 40 Oil Painting
Purchased by the Moravian Permanent Collection in 2022
As an art and psychology student, I am still understanding and developing my style as an artist. I have found enjoyment in the process of creating narrative paintings in my work. In preparation for this piece, I decided I wanted to create something that represented the history and spirit of Moravian University. I wanted to do more than depict the main building, Comenius Hall, and do something that would allow viewers to appreciate Moravian in a whole new way. This, in combination with my newly discovered appreciation for narrative paintings, allowed me to generate the idea of telling the story of Comenius Hall, and some of Moravian's history.
Comenius Hall was first built in 1891, and it originally served as the whole Moravian College, including dorms, the cafeteria, and classrooms.. Moravian started in Nazareth and moved locations for a time, but once Comenius was built, a permanent home was established. Now it serves as an educational building. Assisted by Cory Dieterly, I researched stories about student life, and scouring through hundreds of images of the building throughout the past several hundred years, I created a composition that combined many historical references into one focal point that tells many stories from Moravian throughout it. Drawing inspiration from architectural painters such as Richard Raiselis, and narrative paintings like Netherlandish Proverbs, I was able to construct my own unique piece that tells not only stories of a building but a whole community.
As an artist, this piece is very important to me because it allowed me to further advance my own style, appreciate new research aspects of paintings that I hadn't explored before, and appreciate the community I belong to in a whole new way.
Historical References in Piece:
The building: Comenius Hall, Built 1891
Havey Memorial Library, Built 1892
Fire: Burnt down interior of building, 1913
Horse Rider: "Dink" A hazing practice used in early 1900's in which upperclassman would blindfold freshman, attach them to a horse, and make them find their way back to campus
Gun under tree: School was used as Student army training during WW1, 1917
Woman entering building: Moravian was first women's college in the Lehigh Valley
Coats and Ties: Required in schooling, 1930's
Person Climbing Ivy: Student was known to scale the exterior of the building and was known as the human fly, 1920's
Ivy: Ivy covered the building until it's eventual removal in 1937
University Sign, Moravian became University in 2020
Statue, "Squeeze" statue installed to left of building, 2022