By Luciana Loureiro
Whitney Hall residents, part of Heritage Halls, participated in a ritual of painting the town red last Saturday, Feb. 25, 2006.
But rather than the town, the residents spent 11 hours painting the 6-foot by 10-foot windows of their dorm building.
“They are big, realistic paintings,” said Dan Harmer, a Whitney Hall resident assistant.
Harmer said their first “realistic” painting was last October, when they reproduced the famous painting, “The Creation of Adam,” by Michelangelo.
Since then, the residents have painted famous works of art once a month.
In January, they painted “The Last Supper,” and this month they painted a collection of Book of Mormon characters and scenes.
Devin LeBaron, a freshman studying mechanical engineering, said he came up with the idea to paint more elaborate pieces because he was tired of the traditional snowmen representing winter and hearts for Valentine”s Day.
“We wanted to do something that stood out [and] that would draw people”s attention,” LeBaron said.
LeBaron said he and his friends always do the painting during the night because that”s part of the fun.
“We started on Saturday night until Sunday morning,” he said. “It was fun!”
Along with LeBaron, freshman Robbie Rane from Alabama helped on the Book of Mormon paintings.
Deciding on which painting to try and reproduce takes a long time, Rane said. The reason is because before anything is painted, the work of art is hotly debated. Once a consensus is reached, they measure the paintings and windows to create a scale with a grid to facilitate their work.
Rane said each window artist is responsible for painting a section of the window. Once the work is finished, if the artists are unhappy with the result, they wash off the window and the paint and begin again.
Coming home from church, the morning after a night”s worth of painting, is worth it to see what they have accomplished, Rane said.
“I love to see people coming by and admiring it,” he said.
Bryan Bozung, another resident and artist, said the main reason they paint is to have fun and to improve their art skills.
Although the artists focus on improving their work, the paintings are so well done that cars stop to take pictures, Harmer said.
“When the light comes through the window, it makes it look like stained glass,” he said.
