The Clark Murphy Housing Complex has gone through many changes over the past 40 years. The old Women’s Dorms have seen renovations, renamings and thousands of students (now co-ed) moving in and out. But in the basement of Judson Hall, hidden behind locked doors, is one of the building’s last remaining remnants of student life from the 1980s — a giant mural of ants.
In the mural, the ants go marching in pairs and trios, lugging around Sony Walkmans, Pepsi cans, instruments, laundry and a number of other supplies as they traverse the walls. Hills roll up and down the hall, and a central ant hill shows ants participating in various activities of campus life — doing laundry, playing music, studying, and sitting around the television.
Viewable only through small windows in the doors that connect Ramsey hall and Townes, this mural has earned this cordoned-off passageway the name “the Ant Hall” amongst curious students. This obscurity has turned the Ant Hall into the subject of fascination for the residents of Clark Murphy. Why is it here? What does it mean? Who painted it? When?
Last fall, Furman Magazine included an article from Jerry Salley ‘90 about the mural, which is officially titled “Furman Antics.” Salley’s article touches on the identity of the original artists of the piece, and the loss of other art that used to adorn the walls of the Lakeside common spaces. Sadly, the article laments, the answers to the ‘who’ and ‘why’ of “Furman Antics” are “seemingly lost to time.”
Apparently, there’s no better way to find yourself proven wrong than stating something publically. As alumni began reading the magazine, many recognized the hall from their time at Furman, and several reached out to the University with tips. Reading the article, I was inspired to start searching for the original artists.
Working with University Communications, I followed the leads they had received. First, Rebecca (Daws) Coleman ‘83 had written in, suggesting the artist was Mary Christine McCormac ‘84. McCormac wasn’t the painter but became engaged in the search and reached out to Becky Duvall White ‘85. White suggested it may have been McCormac’s freshman roommate Mary Beth (Templeton) Blackley ‘84, and from there, a quick chat was enough to confirm that Blackley and her friend Lenore Champion ‘84 are the artists behind the piece.
Back in 1982, Blackley was a student of Studio Art at Furman. “I wasn’t a serious artist before I went to Furman, and I kind of learned a lot of it there,” Blackley said.. “We didn’t have an art building. It wasn’t a very big department. But it was fun, and I loved it!”
Her main passions were drawing and illustration, but the major’s requirements meant they had to learn many other mediums as well. So, when President of the Women’s Dorm Council, Gilda Collazo ‘84, ran a contest in 1982 to paint the hall, Blackley and Champion decided to test their skills and enter it.
Walking through the long, underground hall could make students feel small, but the hall was also incredibly popular.
“Everything went on down there, and it connected everything together,” Blackley said. “Everyone would go down there, walk through it because it was warm — the laundry rooms were down there, the music rooms were down there, the study rooms, too.” And so, they worked to capture all of those things in their pitch: the students became ants, and the wall an image of student life, with the residents marching through the hallway carrying a myriad of items like cassette players, Coppertone bronzer, Sony Walkmans and musical instruments.
After their design was picked by the Dorm Council, Blackley and Champion stuck around at the end of the school year and spent a week painting the mural. Blackley recalls painting their names near the central anthill, but the decades since seem to have caused it to become either lost or obscured.
After she graduated in 1984, Blackley started drawing designs for a local clothes company, reconnected with an old friend, got married and moved to Charlotte, N.C. She and her husband now run a hardware store in Matthews, N.C., and have three children and two granddaughters.
“After that first job, I never had another art job,” Blackley said. But she’s never stopped loving art, and still does it in her time — especially oil painting, sewing, quilting and illustrating. During her last time on campus, about a decade ago, she and her daughter were able to make their way into the hall and see the mural.
Champion now lives in Durham, N.C. The Paladin was unable to reach her.
Even as student life at Furman has had four decades to change, Judson’s walls still preserve a snapshot that students can relate to, if they can get a clear look at it. Generations may have come and gone, but the ants have kept marching just the same. Here’s to many more years of “Furman Antics” and to many more antics at Furman!
