Vanessa Harvey ’07 expresses her interest in St. Lawrence’s Sesquicentennial through art. The
sophomore from Huson, MT, and Frenchtown High School explains that
her friend Kelly Garcia, Abilene, TX, was asked last fall to represent the visual arts on
campus for the University’s 150th anniversary. Garcia asked Harvey to join her; Harvey took the lead in designing a mural for the Student Center, and finished the painting this spring while Garcia was on St. Lawrence’s program in Denmark.
“We wanted to portray St. Lawrence’s
unchanging emphasis on learning throughout its past, through
the present and into the future,” says Harvey of their design. “The
theme is the University’s
motto, Fides et Veritas, or Faith and Truth. Knowledge
is truth, and the transfer of knowledge has always been St.
Lawrence’s goal. The woman displays blind faith in
the open book of knowledge, which she is weighing. She is monumental,
for the acquisition of knowledge is a monumental task, and it is
dawn because knowledge leads to new possibilities. Her
foundation is the buildings of St. Lawrence; cloaked in its
colors, she is the embodiment of the University. We chose to
emphasize the divinity of her task by placing a stained glass halo
behind her head. Thus,
we strove to convey all that St. Lawrence has been, all that it is,
and all that it will continue to be as an institution focused
on the education and preparation of those who will shape the future.”
Harvey
says she was attracted to St. Lawrence by its opportunities for international
study and its concern for the individual.
She is a member of the women’s
crew team (“Nothing
is better than going to breakfast and knowing that you have accomplished
so much already in the day”) and the Arts Honorary Society,
and she works as a lifeguard at the University’s pool.
She hopes to continue as an artist after graduation.
