Photo courtesy of Audrey Hanan '28
Image description: Hanan's oil painting depicts Jorge floating on water surrounded by lush green foliage. Hanan uses bold, expressive brushstrokes to bring texture to the feathers, water, and leaves, creating a sense of motion and liveliness. Jorge is central to the composition, with his orange beak adding a bright contrast against the softer whites and greens of his body and the surrounding environment. The water reflects shades of green and blue, blending with Jorge's reflection.
By Aspen Pearson ’28
Staff Writer
After only three days of being on campus, Audrey Hanan ’28 sat down in her Pearsons Hall dorm room and painted Jorge, Mount Holyoke College’s unofficial pilgrim goose mascot. Unbeknownst to her, her artwork would become a campus-wide sensation and lead to a business selling prints of both the beloved goose and campus locations she had painted.
Hanan painted her first Jorge oil painting on Sept. 2 during her orientation. Upon its completion, she posted it to Fizz, an anonymous campus social media app, where it blew up instantly. It is currently the #1 Fizz post of all time among Mount Holyoke College students, with 823 up-votes, and numerous comments begging Hanan for prints of the painting. At first, she was selling them by meeting individual students in Blanchard Hall whenever someone messaged her about ordering one. Then, due to the sheer amount of interest in them, Hanan started booking the tables outside of the Dining Commons to sell her artwork.
While she didn’t know it at the time, her simple post to Fizz helped her integrate into the arts scene on campus. “[When] people were ordering prints, and [when] I was either delivering or having them come to me, it was so much to organize,” Hanan said of the process. She described the time as stressful and overwhelming, as she was often running around campus delivering to the whole community. When asked about that process, Hanan said, “I would give them a time where I would just sit in Blanch, and then they could come pick it up. But that made me [feel] stuck, and I actually had to sit there that whole time, and it got really boring.”
But the hard work paid off. She sold what she estimates to be close to 100 prints, the first 30 coming from Fizz direct messages. In order to expedite the process, she switched over to the tables outside of Blanch, where people can purchase stickers and prints of various sizes.
Hanan’s business was something that came as a surprise, even to her: “I never imagined … that many people would want it.”
Hanan has yet to take an art class at Mount Holyoke, and intends to major in chemistry and possibly environmental studies. While she has no plans to continue a career in the arts, she has plans to create more art and continue selling her pieces to the campus community. When asked about a future in the arts, she said, “I just want to do it on my terms.”
Hanan has dedicated a lot of time to her craft, and when she is not doing her Jorge paintings, she’s doing gouache, a paint medium similar to watercolors. She has always been involved in the arts in one way or another and is open to other creative outlets, too. She stated, “I feel like I could still use my skills to make t-shirt designs or posters or whatever. So I don’t know, it’s another kind of thing like that, doing something for the community with my skills.”
When asked what she plans to do with the arts on campus, she answered, “I would hope that there would be things I could do with art on campus, but I also haven't done enough to even comprehend what that can be at this point.” Even with classes and clubs taking up most of her time, Hanan hopes to continue her art and help her new community.
“I'm just very thankful for all the support people have given me. It feels like I've been very welcomed. ... Nothing like this has ever really happened to me before … it's very nice that people appreciate my art so much,” she concluded.
Quill Nishi-Leonard ’27 contributed fact-checking.