by Liz Huettl ’19

Moorestown Friends School’s class of 2019 has recently completed painting the Lower School hippo. This tradition has been running for years. Incoming seniors must choose a theme to paint on the hippo, which will remain for the entire school year.

This year, the prevailing theme is Alice in Wonderland. The design replaces the class of 2019’s tribute to the class of 2018, which was painted last spring. The tribute included a depiction of the balloons from Winnie the Pooh, and every logo from the graduating class’s colleges was featured within a different balloon in full color. Now seniors, the class of 2019 has put the same effort into the hippo design for their last year.

Echo Yan is one of the senior designers and painters on the project. She gave WordsWorth an inside look into the intensive, collaborative process of creating the project. Painting such detailed artwork takes more than a fun idea and a few paint brushes. When asked about creating the concept, she confessed that “coming up with the concept was difficult.”

She said the class had a poll, but none of the designers were set on any of the top themes. It came down to what was thought to be more “kid-friendly” because the hippo will be viewed by students from preschool through grade 12. This year’s seniors are clearly conscious of that. The theme “Alice in Wonderland” was settled upon.

Yan also mentions other important factors to always consider when delving into any artistic project: time and materials. “It only took three days, and that’s a short time if you think about it”.

The fast coordination was done through a collaborative team of multiple class officers, art scholars, and many others. The group was also lucky enough to use high-quality materials, Yan says. She discloses that they “used water-based paint, primary colors to create any other color needed. The base coat was done in purple”.

The handy group mixed colors, outlined the drawings, and filled everything in within three days despite weather conditions. The seniors had a deadline of Monday, September 3rd to finish painting as it needed to be dry for the school picnic.

It is a testament to how proud the seniors are of their work when Yan declares that “this is probably the best design we could have done. I hope everyone likes it, especially little kids.”

As we move into the 2018-2019 school year, all ages can stop and marvel at the seniors’ proud MFS tradition on display.

Share your hippo photos with us by sending a tweet to @MFSWordsWorth

This article originally appeared in a September 7, 2018 print edition.