Greg Hojnacki designed the new Decker mural to demonstrate the core values of AU. His painting shows the sun setting behind Park Place Church of God with the Eternal Flame in the foreground and orange steps across the landing. (Photo: Cristian Sandoval)
The new orange and black mural located in one of the main stairwells of Decker Hall is only the first of several on-campus projects planned for the coming semester, each designed to highlight AU’s core values in light of the university’s recent rebranding campaign.
Featuring the color scheme of the new AU logo, artist Greg Hojnacki designed and painted an orange, black, gray and white mural showing the state of Indiana, the Eternal Flame and Park Place Church of God. On the floor in front of the wall, an orange sidewalk curves out from the painting, with one of AU’s core values written on each step.
The mural and other art projects planned for display on campus are the next step in the rebranding campaign that began in August with the launch of a new logo.
“The origin of all this truly goes back several years,” said Chris Williams, director of university communications and community relations. “This all began with the president’s vision on revival . . . . It was out of that process that this developed.”
With the rebranding campaign, Williams said they hoped to express the core values of the university in new and creative ways. They also wanted to keep the revitalized image of AU fresh for on-campus students.
“The visual reminders of this need to be in place,” said Williams.
Director of Admissions Joe Davis became involved with the planning of these visual reminders on campus, working with the new mural project as well as a student art project planned for Kane Dining Room. Eight banners designed by AU art majors will hang in the recently redecorated dining room, a space often used for hosting visitors, alumni and prospective students.
“We had some fantastic proposals, and the one we chose was from eight different students,” said Davis of the Kane Dining Room project. “It’s their interpretation of the ‘We don’t believe’ statements.”
Davis also participated in the plans for the new Decker mural. He was considering the plans for campus artwork and decorations, and he started thinking of the stairwell in Decker with a mural of a group of whales. The whale mural was painted in 2004 by AU student Christie Wicker, who worked in the visitor center as an office assistant.
“How cool would it be for students to read on that space the new, bold colors and new campus identity?” said Davis. “I just started talking about it and asking questions.”
Williams and Davis saw the Decker stairwell as the ideal location for the new art, as Decker has only two main entrances, and only one has walls for murals. They wanted a place that many students would access daily to give the new mural the most impact possible. Neither saw the existing mural as an important piece of the AU identity, and after checking with Dean of Students Brent Baker and the art department, they received permission to paint over it.
“Everybody seemed in agreement that it was not a pillar in any way, and if we had the opportunity we should take it,” said Davis.
He and Williams started looking for a student artist. Davis had met Hojnacki as a sponsor for Dativus, and he had seen him wearing hand-painted shoes. The junior general studies major had also created murals outside the CAB office and on the walls of the Shadeland Bike Collective. After seeing some of his other art, murals and tattoo designs, they selected Hojnacki to create the new mural.
“After seeing some of the designs by Greg, we got excited about the possibilities,” said Williams. “It was important to have a student interpretation of the AU story. I think that Greg has done an outstanding job.”
They gave Hojnacki the project in October, and over the next six months, he worked on designs and brought them to Williams and Davis for approval and tweaking. Hojnacki said they made small changes such as lightening the colors in his design, but they left the creative decisions up to him. For inspiration, they gave Hojnacki one of the binders that were distributed to faculty at the launch of the rebranding campaign, describing the logo and the ‘We don’t believe’ statements.
“We handed him one of those and said, ‘We want to see what strikes you and what this would look like on a wall,’” said Davis.
Hojnacki was initially overwhelmed by the broad scope of the project, but he decided to take his inspiration from the view immediately outside the mural’s stairwell.
“When you walk out of the stairwell, you see the Eternal Flame and then Park Place and the sun sets behind that,” said Hojnacki of the mural’s two main images and the sunset behind them. “To some, it looks dark and kind of dusky, but I wanted to represent the future track that AU is going and the foundation it’s built on.”
He and senior Julian Stephens returned to campus and began painting the mural after New Year’s Day, and it was finished after about a week of working seven to eight hours a day. Stephens helped apply basic coats and large chunks of color while Hojnacki outlined his design and added more colors.
His work on the mural has opened up new opportunities for Hojnacki, and he said he has greater initiative to seek out work as an artist. Moving away from his projects as a musician, he has decided to pursue art more actively. He hopes to open an art company that will sell apparel and contract for murals and other artwork.
Hojnacki said he respects the work of the student artists who completed the other murals but thought the new mural would be a better representation of AU.
“I was kind of impartial to the whales,” he said. “I appreciate anyone who’s done something, but when the administration contacted me, they were like, ‘This doesn’t make sense; we want something to represent the school.’ I think a lot of people on campus are indifferent to a new mural there. I think it’s a new step the school is taking.”
The oldest of the murals in Decker Hall, it was painted over through a miscommunication. (Photo provided)
The second mural in the stairwell, featuring a scene from Star Wars, was painted sometime since 1993, before the whale mural and was created, but the art department, administration and Physical Plant did not know the exact year or the artist of the mural. Neither the administrators nor Hojnacki intended to remove the mural for the new project, but it was painted over due to a miscommunication between the administration and Physical Plant. Williams said that “the Star Wars painting was not included within the scope of the project,” and Hojnacki expressed shock and regret over the disappearance of the mural.
“Physical Plant was asked to prime the walls in preparation for the new mural,” said Joe Royer, executive director of facilities and property management. “We understood that to mean prime coating over both murals, thinking that the new mural would be on both areas. If that was not the intent of the administrators, then we misunderstood and made an error in doing so.”
