A L U M N I M A G A Z I N E - Colby-Sawyer College

SUMMER 2011
A Winning Design to Honor Public Workers
Graphic Design major Kelsie “Hoolie” Lee ’11 of Wilmot,
N.H., created the winning design for a new memorial that
will be dedicated to public workers in New Hampshire who
have died on the job. The memorial will be constructed on
the grounds of the state’s Department of Transportation
building in Concord.
Lee, who served as a volunteer firefighter with New
London Fire Department while attending Colby-Sawyer,
was motivated to create a design for very personal reasons:
Her father is the director of New London’s Public Works
Department, and in 2005, her friend Ryan Haynes, 20, of
Danbury, was killed while working on a New London road.
Lee used what she learned in her Pathway seminar and
other art classes in her design, which incorporates the property’s
unique geometric shape as though the memorial were
meant to be there all along. “My entire design is reflective of
the fact that I can visit this space,” she says.
In homage to her home state, Lee chose black granite as
the backdrop for the workers’ names and gray granite for
benches that will provide visitors a place to sit and reflect.
“I wanted to represent the four seasons in which public
workers perform their jobs and the 24 hours that constitute
a day in which they are on call or working,” says Lee. “To
bring these concepts to life the memorial is primarily constructed
of four black granite slabs that will be cut to look like
boulders: They represent our four seasons. Directly across from
the slabs will be 24 shovels created from weathered steel and
diamond plate at various heights to represent all the hours of
the day.”
As the winning designer, Lee received a $1,200 scholarship.
She graduated in May and plans to start a graphic
design business focused on serving non-profit agencies
and organizations.
Graphic Design major Kelsie Lee ’11 created the design that was selected for a
memorial that will be built in Concord, N.H., to honor public workers who have
died on the job. Lee cited her Pathway course, Art in the Landscape/Landscape
as Art, with Professor Loretta Barnett, as one of her inspirations.
To read Kelsie Lee’s article about her design process and view her memorial design, visit www.colby-sawyer.edu/currents/hoolie.html.
SUMMER 2011 3
PHOTO: Gil Talbot