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January 8, 2008
ANDOVER — Artist Wade Zahares spent most of his holidays creating a new view of the uncommon world. The finished product now graces the eastern wall of the new temporary dining facility on the Andover campus, which students have dubbed “Uncommons.” The 12 by 45-foot mural is a fisheye view to the great world beyond from the desktop of an imaginary Andover student. Zahares thinks he’ll call the lively, colorful work “Beyond the Blue.” He wanted his painting to encourage students to look toward their futures in the larger world.
The Maine-based artist has published six children’s books including Lucky Jake and Liberty Rising, and is at work on his next, Pony Island, set on Assateague Island in Chesapeake Bay. Most of his work, including the Uncommons mural, celebrates his trademark perspective—seeing the big, wide world from a pint-sized point of view, from below. “I am constantly trying to think of different ways to view things,” Zahares explained.
The view in “Beyond the Blue” is from just under the desktop that opens to the world, with PA’s Memorial Bell Tower and Samuel Phillips Hall in the foreground, a distant cityscape and continents toward the horizon, and vast seas between. On the desk sit three objects: the globe—to represent PA’s cherished diversity and global reach, an omnipresent coffee cup, and a fishbowl. The cup and the bowl hold special significance. Each depicts a blue shark, calling card of a certain Big Blue fan.
The mural was painted over a two-week period during the winter recess, taking nearly 150 hours to complete. Zahares did one all-nighter the last night, painting from 11 a.m. to 7 a.m. the following morning. Working in latex paint, he covered the wall with bold bands of blues, greens, and bright oranges.
Zahares, 47, lives and works on an old farmstead in Lyman, Maine. He loves landscapes, seascapes, and underwater scenes. His connection to Phillips Academy came through Director of Design Ellen Hardy, who first had hired him in 1994 to draw an aerial cartoon map of the campus. Other projects followed: Bulletin covers, scratchboards of campus buildings, and other illustrations. Because students were concerned that the renovated ice rink needed to have a warmer, friendlier feeling, Hardy suggested that Zahares’ colorful, cheery painting would be the perfect antidote. He met with students in November to discuss ideas for the mural, and found them full of suggestions. The blue sharks idea came from the students, he said.
With his books, pieces in galleries throughout Boston and the DeCordova Museum’s Permanent Collection, and a September live event at the Whitney Museum in New York, Zahares is building quite a reputation. In 18 months, when Uncommons is no longer needed for dining, Zahares’ inspiration will survive to enhance the building’s next incarnation. What that will be, is like students’ futures—for now, Beyond the Blue.
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