Little Hall, home to Colgate University’s Department of Art, stands out among campus buildings in the way that it reflects the students who inhabit it. While other spaces on campus display student projects and research, Little Hall is unique in that all of its hallways and walls are lined with student artwork — paintings, sketches, sculptures, projects and animations — that together form a kind of collective pseudo-gallery, one that continually updates and evolves with the students that fill it each semester. It’s one of the few buildings on campus that slows my pace whenever I pass through, for there’s simply so much to see and to be inspired by.
One such work, found in the seated alcove off Little Hall’s main staircase, is senior Lindsay Hess’ “Dear Peter,” a colorful, web-like fiber installation that stretches across the ceiling, with loops of yarn and strings of beads hanging from it.
Created last fall for Advanced Projects in Studio Art (ARTS 375), a class designed for students to “develop a distinctive practice and personal voice,” Hess’ piece marked her first work made entirely from crocheted and knitted fiber, a medium she’s long loved but had never pursued at such scale until now.
“I love to crochet and knit,” Hess said. “Fiber art has always been a big thing for me, but this is the first piece I did that was really more focused on it. I’d never done something that was just purely fiber art before.”
The concept for “Dear Peter” was formed in tandem with fellow senior Eloise Sampson and recent graduate Liz Armstrong ’24, who, in their respective mediums of video projection and painting, explored the tension between nature as it exists on its own and humanity’s impulse to control it. The idea was intended to be a direct critique of the then-new construction project of Peter’s Glen, which, to them, embodies that very impulse. Sampson’s and Armstrong’s works, which once accompanied Hess’ installation, are no longer on display.
“At the time, Peter’s Glen was just beginning construction,” Hess said. “I was so upset when they cut down the entire forest of trees that used to be there to make the Glen. It just seemed so silly to me. They chopped down an entire forest just to put back perfectly placed and manicured trees in its place.”
Hess’s contribution to this group concept focused on nature itself — she sought to convey the raw, unmanicured aspects of what existed in a pre-Peter’s Glen construction world.
“My piece is supposed to speak directly to the uncontrollable, untamed elements of nature,” Hess said. “I wanted to create something that was going to overwhelm the viewer a bit and convey this sense that you don’t have control of anything that’s going on.”
Much of the physical and aesthetic inspiration for “Dear Peter” came not only from the newly decimated forests that are now Peter’s Glen, but from a local Hamilton trail: the Chenango Canal Towpath. Hess had spent much of the previous summer walking there, closely observing the environment.
“I love going on walks,” Hess said. “I was here the summer before [fall 2024] and spent a lot of time on the Chenango Towpath behind Speedway. I’d just look at the trees and the nature that exists there — the ecosystem that exists there — and I really started to pay attention to it.”
It was those walks, and a photograph Hess took on the trail, that directly inspired the central acrylic panel that anchors “Dear Peter” and the web of knitted panels surrounding it.
“I used the laser cutter to etch into a piece of acrylic and cut that out,” Hess said. “Then, I went into Adobe Illustrator and used a picture of a broken tree from the Chenango Towpath to trace those markings.”
For the fiber panels themselves, Hess took an unplanned, intuitive approach that sought to mirror her natural concept. Rather than follow a pattern, she knitted freeform, playing with stitch types, color and texture as she went, only later incorporating crochet to expand the piece in the context of the exhibition space.
“I just started knitting very big freeform swatches, experimenting with different stitch types, dropping stitches wherever I felt like it,” Hess said. “This method felt more in line with what was natural rather than planning, which I think works conceptually with what I was trying to do with the piece.”
The beads scattered throughout the work were also inspired by the natural world, specifically, a photo her fellow group member, Sampson, sent her of a spiderweb covered in dew.
“It was gorgeous,” Hess said. “That’s where the idea of a web came from originally. I wanted to incorporate that in because I wanted people to be able to touch it — I wanted it to touch them. So I had pieces coming down, and added the beads as a little bit of magic and surprise and sparkle, for an approachable type of curiosity.”
Hess surely elicited this desired sense of curiosity, as “Dear Peter” tends to catch the eyes of those passing through Little Hall, whether it’s the occasional passerby or students who frequent the space.
Junior Ashley Shanahan, a neuroscience major and medieval and renaissance studies minor, who often cuts through the building on her way to dance rehearsal, recognized the piece immediately when asked about it.
“It’s my favorite thing in Little,” Shanahan said. “I like how it’s integrated into the space and just makes the area it’s in so much more interesting.”
For others who spend more time in Little Hall, the presence of student art carries additional meaning. Junior Thea Larsen, an economics and studio art double major, who also has work currently displayed in the building, spoke to the value of seeing her peers’ art.
“I personally find seeing the work of others really meaningful because my art is usually an extension of my own thoughts and feelings,” Larsen said. “Getting a glimpse into someone else’s inner world is super interesting and inspiring to me.”
Shanahan and Larsen’s sentiments capture what makes Little Hall and works like “Dear Peter” so special — it’s a space that inspires.
For Hess, the project marked just the beginning of her foray into fiber art. She’s now working on her senior art thesis, a close study of fiber and doilies, alongside 14 other students in what she described as “the biggest studio art class in over a decade.”
Their work, including Hess’ art, will be exhibited in Little Hall’s Clifford Gallery this winter, opening Dec. 10, with the Senior Projects: Class of 2026 reception at 4:30 p.m.
