Lake? What Lake?

"Here is the Spot"

"A Goodly Spin Down the Lake"

Pushing Off

Down to the Lake

The Coxe and May Tragedy

Back to the Seneca Lake homepage.

A Certain Condition of Light

Noting some of the more artistic impressions of Seneca Lake

Seneca Lake is a landscape waiting to happen, always happening, always about to happen, a seemingly endless possibility.

"Every day it's a different color, every day a different mood. Even at different times of day, it's constantly changing, but within that it's always the same, it's there," says John Loftus, professor of art, reflecting on Seneca’s "artistic" qualities.

Loftus has painted a series of dramatic Seneca Lake landscapes (pictured) that capture the lake's "expansiveness," and its "formal and emotional possibilities." He came to the Colleges in 1967 with a pronounced interest in landscapes. The lake’s "presence" compelled him to paint it.

Loftus "found something very reassuring in the lake. It expresses so many moods, and within the changes storminess, brightness, darkness, greenness, blueness, light. It’s constant and constantly changing."

Paul Chojnowski '74 spent the winter and spring terms of his senior year living in a cottage on Seneca, working on a series of landscapes (pictured, right), which became his Honors project. He lived and worked in a large second floor room with a picture window. "Storms that winter would pound the breakwall with such force the whole house shook." And there he'd sit, "my water color on my block, looking out that window working out problems."

Chojnowski works as an artist and lives in Western Massachusetts. His art today — large, experiential, multimedia constructions employing unlikely media — were described in the Atlanta Journal/Atlanta Constitution as "extraordinary, exquisite work." They are a far reach from the Seneca Lake landscapes he did as a student, but Chojnowski talks about "drifting back there, back to the lake" from time to time. "I have a very poor memory, but I have memories of that place on the lake that are just indelible." — P.R.

The Seneca Lake series was researched and written by Dana Cooke and Peter Rolph '85 — writer/editors in the Office of College Relations. Portions of the series also appear in the Fall '97 issue of The Pulteney St. Survey. To request a copy, e-mail Susan Murad at murad@hws.edu.