Olly Olly Referee
Artist: Kristen Cermele, Lauren Meyer and Laura Valenza
Design Statement
Olly Olly Referee’s name is a play on “Olly Olly Oxen Free,” a line often shouted to signal changes in children’s games. We believe Olly’s whimsical design captures the spirit of sport—the excitement of play and the changes in the games that have been and will be part of us for generations.
Olly wears the uniform of a sports referee whose bold black and white stripes swirl around a baseball, basketball, and lacrosse ball, to name a few, to represent a wide range of sports played on and off the field. The large whistle around his neck is decorated with the Hopewell Valley logo and black and gold signature colors. With his uniform on, Olly is ready to make all the right calls.
This ox was sold during the online auction for $1,200.
About the Artist
Kristen Cermele graduated TCNJ with her BFA in 2012, already obtaining a degree in Equine Science from Centenary College. She grew up in Pennington, attending the Hopewell Valley Pubic Schools. While creating art, Kristen works at a local farm as a horse trainer and exercise rider.
Lauren Meyer is a student at the Maryland Institute College of Art and will earn her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Painting with a minor in Art History and an emphasis in Sustainability and Social Practice in 2015. She currently works at the Walters Art Museum, has interned at the Princeton University Art Museum, and worked with the Maryland Historical Society. Lauren has taken on many leadership roles in Baltimore and beyond while maintaining a dedicated studio practice. Her work has been displayed and sold in Maryland, and was recently cited in an article by the Baltimore Sun. Lauren, who is from Pennington, went to Hopewell Valley Central High School and couldn’t be more thrilled to have her ox displayed on the athletic fields there.
Laura Valenza is a rising senior at New York University studying Comparative Literature and focusing in Art History. Her first Hopewell Valley art commission was a school mural in first grade with Mrs. Bradshaw, and she is excited to be working with Mrs. Bradshaw again on The Stampede. She loves studying art, especially nineteenth century French and Italian art. Last fall she interned at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and she volunteers as a docent at Morven Museum and Garden in Princeton.