‘Faith-Hope-Love,’ a collaborative piece, 2013. 

Mixed Media: image transfer, painting, drawing, printmaking, written prayers. 

Displayed over the fireplace in the Study Commons.

In 2013, Middle and Upper School students worked together to create a mixed media piece to hang in the Study Commons to celebrate faith, hope, and love. The piece is composed of prayers from students, faculty, and staff members of the ESD community. After working together to format the imagery with the submitted text, students transfer-printed images of All Saints Chapel and an eagle onto the canvas.

ESD art instructor Ms. Kathleen Raymond, who worked at ESD from 1985 - 1997 and from 2008 - 2014, facilitated the creation of this large-scale artwork. The imagery came from freshmen and senior art students, then everyone in the ESD community was invited to add a prayer. 

“Ms. Blaine asked us to create something that embodies the entire school… something that everyone could connect with,” Kathleen Raymond, one of ESD’s Fine Arts teachers, and facilitator of the project said. “Our process was ‘artwork by committee.’ The imagery came from the freshmen and senior art students, and then everyone from the community was invited to add a prayer.”

Middle and Upper School students met over the course of several weeks to decide what kind of artwork would adorn the Study Commons, and choose which images would be used to capture the essence of the School. The group, led by Jenkins Bender '14 and freshman Grant Hemingway '17, settled on a mixed media piece that would involve using metal spoons and solvent to transfer-print images of All Saints Chapel and an eagle onto a custom canvas. Students collected handwritten prayers from their peers and teachers to transfer onto the canvas. Requests of different faiths and languages flooded in, as students worked together to arrange the phrases and uplifting words around the campus imagery. “It was really important to us that the entire ESD community be invited to participate in the making of the print,” Bender said.

When the images were pressed and dried, and the prayers meticulously placed to frame All Saints Chapel and the eagle, the words “faith,” “hope,” and “love” were printed larger and bolder than anything else. The size of each component directly represents the hearth and warmth of the school. 

“It really did take a village to get this project completed,” Raymond said. “Everyone was able to add their own special touch to the artwork.”

Next time you walk around the Study Commons, take a closer look as you pass by the fireplace and see if you can read some of the prayers.