Pillars of a Nation
a
Limited
Edition Print
by Jim Daly
Image size: 28 3/4" x 21 5/8"
Pillars of a Nation is a painting about the experience of immigration. It was commissioned by a man whose grandfather went to Ellis Island when he immigrated to America from Hungary in 1907. Like most of the immigrants who passed through Ellis Island, he came with few resources except a burning desire to succeed. Pillars of a Nation is a tribute to that grandfather and to all immigrants who came to North America.
What excited and moved me about the Great Hall at Ellis
Island, where the immigrants waited to be processed, was
the level and range of emotions that must have been
experienced by those passing through inspection. They
must have run the gamut of emotions - the joy and
excitement of beginning a new life in a new country and all
the hopes and dreams of the future. But there was another
emotion, too; that emotion was fear - the intense, overwhelming fear of being rejected and sent back. Waiting
in the Great Hall they must have experienced the most
important moments in their lives. It was these contrasting
emotions and feelings that I wanted to portray in
Pillars of a Nation. - Jim Daly
A New Beginning The Immigrant Spirit Bountiful Land The New Citizen
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