| History
with a Kick
One
of a Kind: Why is this painted critter, sometimes used
as a mascot
by a certain other college in the Lehigh Valley,
standing
in front of Peter Hall? With Nicole Casola ’04,
president of the Moravian Art Club, no less.
 Remember Sal? She was the mule who hauled
barges 15 miles on the Erie Canal in a song most of us
learned in elementary school.
This summer and fall, residents
of the Lehigh Valley will come upon many a Sal.
But these fiberglass mules are gorgeously decorated. They’re part of “Miles
of Mules,” a public art project developed by the Delaware and Lehigh
National Heritage Corridor and sponsored locally by the Banana Factory, Bethlehem.
The
mules will be auctioned off for charity in November.
The mules follow in the
footsteps of the cows. First there were cows in Zurich, Switzerland, in honor
of Swiss cheese. Then there were the Chicago cows, which
paid homage to the city’s meat-packing industry. The mules are here
because of the canals that criss-crossed the Northeastern United States and
were its
primary trade routes in the country’s first century. In Pennsylvania,
the mules pulled coal barges.
The Moravian College Art Club created the
one currently standing in front of Peter Hall. It wears
a patchwork quilt in
Moravian blue and grey, with
a unique
Moravian star in each patch. The stars are painted after the manner of
(among others) Seurat, Degas, Van Gogh, Cézanne,
Mondrian, and Roy Lichtenstein, said art club president
Nicole Casola ’04, Midland Park, N.J.
Besides Nicole,
those who worked on the Moravian mule were Danielle Geist ’06,
Northampton; Sarah Handfest ’06, Whitehall; Nate Kappenstein ’05,
Birdsboro; Jon Latiano ’05, Coopers-burg; Tracy Maalouf ’04,
Bethlehem; Kim Mabry ’06, King of Prussia; Katrina McDaniel ’05,
Coopersburg; Jon Narmita ’03, Basking Ridge, N.J.; Kristin Roberts ’05,
Sellersville; Kelly Warner ’04, Hanover; and Laura Werner ’04,
Medford, N.Y.
Art faculty and staff Anne Dutlinger, Gerard
Maynard, Doug Zucco, Jan Ciganick, and David Leidich also
brought their brushes to
bear on the
mule. |
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