A new mural at DePaul University’s Lincoln Park Campus pays homage in a big way to the 17^th century priest who is known as the "apostle of charity." The huge visage of St. Vincent de Paul that smiles gently down from the brick and mortar wall is the largest likeness of him anywhere in the world.

The 69-foot-tall and 36-foot-wide mural, entitled "We are DePaul," adorns the south wall of the Thomas Levan Center, 2322 N. Kenmore Ave. It was completed in just five weeks by a group of seven art students working under the direction of DePaul art instructor Brother Mark Elder, C.M. Elder spotted the "intriguing wall," which he thought was the perfect spot for a mural, some 20 years ago while he was a student at DePaul. "I thought it was a natural place for Vincent to be, so I started politicking to do this a long time ago," Elder explained.

St. Vincent, for whom the university is named, founded the Roman Catholic community of priests and brothers, known as Vincentians, that sponsors DePaul, the largest Catholic university in the United States. St.Vincent is remembered for his dedication to empowering the poor especially through providing access to a quality of education. As a fitting tribute, Elder decided that the saint’s monumental portrait would be comprised of miniature faces of people from around campus, and that these images would celebrate the diversity of the DePaul community. The subjects range in occupation from a custodian, to a former dean to a Vincentian priest.

The smaller images are repeated inside of a larger drawing to make up the face of St. Vincent. Although the artistic technique of using repetitive, small images to compose a larger image has become quite popular recently, Elder took it a step further by collecting the images of real people who he came in contact with at the university every day. Elder began photographing faces in January. He carried his camera around campus for weeks, taking photographs of the people he encountered. He finally decided on eight subjects who represented either faculty or staff and eight students for a total of 16 images to go on to the mural.

The photos were digitally computerized and stencils were made of the faces for easy transfer to the wall, which was prepared by tuck-pointing and applying a base coat of white granite paint. A long-lasting mineral silicate paint was used for the actual mural, which will easily out last the building, according to Elder. Monochromatic tones were selected for the mural because they are less expensive and less time consuming, according to Elder. The portrait colors range from white to tan to gray to brown to black. There are four dots or images per brick with, the images becoming more detailed and accurate as the design of the mural progresses downward.

"We are DePaul" has received a lot of attention from students and faculty on DePaul’s campus. Aside from its unique design, most people seem amazed at how quickly the mural was completed. "The first response to seeing it there is usually a ‘My God!’" said Elder. "Once they see the little faces up close, you’ll hear a lot of ‘Oh, wow! This is so cool.’

"Nowadays, you have to go further with art, you have to be more conceptual," said Elder of his technique. "I could have done this in a lot simpler fashion, sort of a paint-by-number kind of thing, but people expect more out of art."

The students who worked on the mural are Jalissa Bauman, Tonee Dang, Andrew Hannigan, Cassandra Hegewald, Mbiganyi Lashani, Meena Mahotra and Randall Zmed.