Two freshmen at the University of North Alabama, Kenny Davies and Abbie Grace Warren, used Post-It sticky notes to create a mural of the Statue of Liberty.

The mural resides on the windows of Olive Hall. It stands four floors tall and lifts its torch proudly at its residential neighbors in Covington Hall. 

Anna Vaccaro, Housing and Residence Life Area Coordinator, said the installation came as a surprise to her and many other resident assistants (RA). 

“One of my co-workers texted me and [asked], ‘Have you seen Olive windows?’ and I was like, ‘Oh no, what happened?’ because you never know what’s going to happen [in the dorms],” Vaccaro said. “He sent me a picture and I was just honestly … amazed.” 

Vaccarro said that she could tell that it took a lot of forethought.

“Of all [my] years at UNA, I’ve never witnessed anything like this,” said Vaccaro.

Many other students may not have either. However, Davies does not take credit for starting this trend. 

“I really have to give some credit to the student body themselves,” said Davies. 

This was not the first time a student has put a mural on the dorm windows. Instead, it was an idea inspired by what Davies saw other students create.

“In the other personal windows of the dorms, people have made other little murals,” Davies said. “There’s one of [a] lion and one saying, ‘Hi’ to people staying in Covington. It’s pretty cool how they took some sticky notes and did that.”

Davies looked up at the windows in admiration and thought that it would be cool to put his own mural on there. Only he would take his a step further. 

“I talked to [my friend] Abbie, and she said she would be down to do it if I got the plans done,” said Davies. 

From there, planning took place. For an ordinary student, that might mean scribbling a rough draft on a piece of notebook paper but for Davies, who was an interior architecture major, this meant graphing and measuring. 

Davies went outside Olive Hall with a 12 inch ruler, and foot by foot, inch by inch, got the dimensions of the building. Using the apps, Solid Edge, Inkscape and Paint, he made a mock up design. 

Then, he took a picture of the Statue of Liberty online, put it on this mock design of his and flipped it so that it would appear the right way. 

“After that, I had got it to the size where I could zoom in and that each pixel was sticky note,” Davies said. “Each pixel lined up with the mock windows, so I could look at it and label the dark sticky notes [as] one and the lighter colors [as] two. I hand drew on some graph paper each floor and went through, and made up the different lines with numbers and dots.”

Davies said that when he puts his mind on something, he really gets into it. 

“Sometimes, [I’m] way too into it,” said Davies with a laugh. 

But it was this drive that gave Davies and Warren the blueprint that needed to begin. 

After finishing the mock design, Davies texted Warren and, eager to get started, she replied, “You have sticky notes?” 

“I didn’t plan on doing it then,” Davies said. “I planned on doing it maybe a week out from then.”

However, with the tenacity of Warren, Davies was able to pull off the design in eight hours using over 1,500 Post-It sticky notes. 

“We started around 5:30 p.m. and we got the 2nd floor done, but we had to run to Walmart to get more sticky notes,” Warren said. “Once we got back, we worked until almost 2 a.m. to finish it.”

Afterwards, Warren said the two stood back and looked at the sticky note masterpiece they had created. 

“[That] was a rewarding feeling,” said Warren. 

The two planned on taking it down after a little bit, but decided to intentionally leave it up to honor the lives lost on 9/11. 

“There’s one picture [from 9/11] that stands out [to me], and it’s the picture of the statue of liberty still standing there even among the devastation that happened in the city,” Davies said. “It stands out because it shows that we still are one. [I think] there’s just a lot of meaning [there].”

Now, up for almost three weeks, the two freshmen have already started brainstorming future ideas. 

“We’re thinking of something to do for Halloween and different holidays,” Davies said. “I don’t want to put [a mural] in the window too often because I don’t know how Housing and Residence Life would feel about it. [Also] I want to be considerate of other students.”

However, Housing and Residence Life is in full support of Davies and Warren’s sticky note art.

Vaccaro said that the mural provides students with a sense of excitement and community within the resident halls. 

“The residents of Olive love it,” Vaccaro said. “So I want to encourage [students’ creativity] and motivate them to keep going. I’ve reached out [Kenny and Abbie] and scheduled a meeting to talk about how [Housing and Residence Life] can help. So if they need resources, we can provide that for them.” 

Vaccaro said that after the year students encountered due to COVID-19, something like this was needed.

“We just want to encourage [this] as opposed to reprimanding them,” Vaccaro said. “We want to encourage the community, whatever that looks like.” 

The Statue of Liberty, pieced together with neon and dark green sticky notes, remains on the windows of Olive Hall until further notice. Perhaps, this is Davies and Warren’s way of saving “hello” to the rest of UNA.