Mohannes as an Old Man by Dan Christoffel Terra cotta Sculpture: 10 x 17 x 9 inches. (Sketch not included.)

Mohannes as a Young Man by Dan Christoffel Terra cotta Sculpture: 14 x 25 x 11 inches. (Click images for blowups.)

Dan Christoffel is a national and international exhibiting artist who has studied at the Art Students' League, the National Academy, Pratt Institute, the State University at New Paltz, and Long Island University at C.W. Post. He has taught art for forty-one years, and is a past president of the Long Island Art Teachers Association. He is past curator for the Partnership for Cultural Development at Chelsea Center in Muttontown, and is an artist-in-residence at C.W. Post.

Dan works in myriad media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, and print making. As inspiration, he draws on the grand history of portraits from the Romans to the present, "the portrait as a vehicle of expression." A recurring theme in his work is dignity manifested through the human form and portrait. According to Dan, "The human figure, with all its imperfections and desired idealism, is the hierarchy and most thematic of all images used by artists past and present."

Dan's submission to the exhibition is a terra cotta portrait of Mohannes, sachem of the Native American Matinecocks in 1653, who represented his people at the sale of the land that was to become Oyster Bay. Dan portrays Mohannes as a middle-aged man, reflecting on the nature of human behavior. Dan states, "It was (Historical Society Director) Tom Kuehhas' enthusiasm about Mohannes as a pivotal figure in Oyster Bay's history that convinced me to focus on him as my subject. I wanted to capture the universal quality of the depth of human experience and the dignity manifested by our Native Americans. I was happy to be a part of this undertaking."

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