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For Paul Germain ’04 (Coral Springs, Fla.), a yearlong independent research project on different forms of graffiti is a culmination of over three years of fascination with the unlikely art form.
“This thesis project has been a work in progress from the moment I set foot on the Lafayette campus,” says Germain, a double major in art and English. “Persuaded by my father, who was in the class of ’71, to locate his name on his favorite study desk in Skillman Library, I was instantly fascinated by the graffiti messages presented there.”
Germain will defend his work in both disciplines to earn departmental honors at graduation. Andrew Smith, assistant professor of English and chair of American studies, and Ed Kerns, Eugene H. Clapp II ’36 Professor of Art, are guiding his efforts to unlock the “vandalistic/artistic expression” that is graffiti.
An internationally known abstract painter, Kerns has mounted more than 30 one-person shows and participated in more than 150 group exhibitions in the United States, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Mexico. His work is in numerous public and corporate collections, and has been reviewed in many journals and magazines.
“Paul is a very verbal, very articulate guy,” Kerns says. “I think this thesis is going to be a special thing.”
“He’s tenacious,” says Smith. “He is extremely creative and imaginative…I enjoy seeing him grapple with new problems and ideas.”
“This project touches upon and builds skills for things Paul will do after Lafayette,” Smith adds. “He seeks to bring his research to a public debate, and will touch people who don’t normally get touched by an honors thesis.”
Germain seeks to change perceptions of the content of structures such as library desks to force people to look at the desks as artistic objects themselves, and see past the words written there to garner a view of the whole piece of art.
“I have chosen to pursue an interdisciplinary thesis because I believe that graffiti is an ideal combination of both rhetorical and artistic expression,” Germain says. He will share his work at the end of the school year through a gallery exhibit and a 100-page paper. The college will archive the panels he creates for the exhibit.
“I intend to establish that a lot of graffiti is very artistic in nature, and that most examples are intriguing works of personal expression and social commentary.” Germain says. “As a complex hypertext, school graffiti is unique and must be studied because it provides us with a crucial view into certain kinds of ignored social perspectives, making commentary on issues like class, gender, race, politics, and religion. The thesis paper will include both textual and artistic analysis of individual examples of graffiti and the gallery show makes use of nine actual desks, broken down and reformed sculpturally to reinforce my beliefs about the power of this medium. The exhibit is a literal deconstruction of our assumptions of graffiti, allowing people to see it from a new perspective in this context.”
“It is his mission to bring this material to campus to have people see in a different and relative way,” says Smith.
Skillman Library is undergoing a $22 million reconstruction and expansion project that will replace years of the graffiti that Germain has been studying. “I was further driven to complete this project knowing that after the renovation, all of these important and valid expressions would be lost forever,” he says. “So much of this art will be erased.”
The project originated in an art course two years ago and continued in an independent study last spring that culminated in a lecture attended by 40-50 students. Germain is pleased with the opportunities he has received at Lafayette, as well as the close interactions he has had with a number of professors.
“The small liberal arts atmosphere of Lafayette has allowed me to interact with a number of students and professors regularly,” he says. “These relationships and close interactions with the Lafayette community have been crucial to the development of my thesis project as well as my academic and social education on this campus.”
“I must praise each and every professor I have ever had in both the English and art departments. Lafayette has allowed me the luxury of combining two different courses of study into an exciting and challenging experience.”
Germain asked Smith to be his primary thesis adviser after getting to know him through a film course, discovering his “work ethic, fervor for knowledge, and excellent ability to give criticism.”
“Paul works hard and he’s an imaginative and insightful thinker,” Smith says. “He is well-positioned to do a thesis at Lafayette.”
Germain was eager to work with Kerns because of his attitudes about “the limitless possibilities of any artistic project.”
He will be pursuing a master’s in fine arts management next fall at the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University.
He has been on Dean’s List for five semesters. Last spring, he was photographed for the American Memory Project by Bill Hayward ’65, who visited Lafayette to photograph subjects in the medium of portraiture, inviting them transform their backdrop in any way they wished.
Germain is also a McKelvy Scholar. Since 1962, the McKelvy program has brought together Lafayette students with a wide range of majors and interests to reside in a historic off-campus house and share in intellectual and social activities.
“McKelvy has emphasized the importance of shared community involvement,” he says. “Equal respect for each other is important in the discussions, along with the recognition that each person can bring new and exciting ideas to the table. Participating in weekly discussions has enhanced my ability to communicate with others on a higher level and to confront certain issues from a new and enlightened perspective.”
Germain is a disc jockey for WJRH, Lafayette’s campus radio station, and a news reporter for the student newspaper, The Lafayette. He is a tour guide for the admissions office and a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and the Lafayette Intercultural Networking Council. He is also an actor for an improvisational comedy group and serves as the social chair and musical director for the Hillel Society.
He completed a 10-week internship last summer with Disney Theatrical Productions on Broadway, where he learned about theater management, as well as how theater functions efficiently and successfully.
“People took the time to develop my interest in learning more about such a complex industry,” he says. “This past summer has left me with aspirations of returning to the New York Broadway theater district for a profession, perhaps after graduation.”
Germain is a graduate of the Pine Crest School.
Honors thesis projects are among several major opportunities at Lafayette that make the College a national leader in undergraduate research. Lafayette sends one of the largest contingents to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research each year. Forty-two students were accepted to present their work at the next annual conference this month.