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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; From the Maltby in Swoyersville to the Truesdale in Nanticoke to the Gaylord in Plymouth &#8212; imposing coal breakers once towered over Pennsylvania&#8217;s coal country.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve read there were 400, but they didn&#8217;t all exist at the same time,&#8221; local artist Sue Hand said of the industrial stuctures where anthracite was broken into smaller pieces.</p><p>None of the local breakers remain standing today, but you can see what they looked like if you visit the Widmann Art Gallery at King&#8217;s College, where more than 50 acrylic paintings from a series Hand calls &#8220;Coal Breaker Communities: Faded Memories,&#8221; will be on display through Feb. 15.</p><p>While Hand gave each painting an old-time breaker as its focal point, she also gave each piece portraits of people who lived through the days when coal was king.</p><p>Here toddler boys sport sailor suits that were popular in the 1930s, enormous hair bows complement what was probably a girl&#8217;s Sunday-best dress; brides with veils and grooms with boutonnieres link arms and smile for the camera.</p><p>&#8220;I wanted to show it wasn&#8217;t all gloom and doom,&#8221; Hand said. &#8220;The miners and their families made great moments and memories.&#8221;</p><p>In one painting, a small child holds the kind of wicker basket often used to hold food.</p><p>&#8220;It was the blessing of the Easter baskets,&#8221; Hand said, explaining the youngster with the basket is one of many real people she painted, often after viewing family photos of ancestors and in-laws that her art students shared with her.</p><p>As she painted, Hand said, &#8220;I could feel the presence of their lives and energy. I don&#8217;t know if they could see what I was doing, but if they could I would like to think they&#8217;d be happy with it. I felt like I was honoring them.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I wanted to show young and old, rich and poor, male and female,&#8221; she added.</p><p>From the little girl holding a muff to the young mother wearing an apron to the miners with open flames flickering on top of their helmets, in some cases it&#8217;s easy to tell who was in which social class.</p><p>Hand feels a special sympathy for the breaker boys who had the dangerous, sharp-edged task of separating coal from slate and rocks with their bare hands as it moved along on a conveyor.</p><p>&#8220;I would do research and then I would cry,&#8221; Hand said. &#8220;It was the breaker boys that would get to me, God bless them.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I have a difficult time going into the mansions of the mine owners,&#8221; Hand said. &#8220;The one in Jim Thorpe is gorgeous. It&#8217;s beautiful. But the way I feel, I&#8217;m not sure it&#8217;s resentment but sadness at their greed. I think they could have been more generous to the miners.&#8221;</p><p>Her latest series is not the first time the artist has chosen anthracite mining heritage as a subject.</p><p>More than 200 pieces from her hexagon-shaped series, &#8220;Anthracite Miners and Their Hollowed Ground,&#8221; are on permanent display in the King&#8217;s on the Square building. The public can see them whenever the building is open.</p><p>Her recent project, &#8220;Coal Breaker Communities: Faded Memories&#8221; is on exhibit a block or so north from Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s Public Square, in the college&#8217;s Widmann Art Gallery, where the regular hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.</p><p>A meet-the-artist reception will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. on Jan. 18 at the gallery, which is on the first floor of the Sheehy-Farmer Campus Center. Hand is also scheduled to discuss her recent project at 7 p.m. Jan. 17 in the Burke Auditorium, William G. McGowan School of Business. The Thursday event is King&#8217;s annual Monsignor John J. Curran Lecture. </p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Local artist Sue Hand discusses one of the 53 acrylic paintings she has on display at the Widmann Art Gallery at King&#8217;s College. An additional seven in the series, which she calls &#8216;Coal Breaker Communities: Faded Memories,&#8217; didn&#8217;t fit into the gallery, but you can see what they look like if you attend a lecture Hand will give 7 p.m. Thursday in the college&#8217;s Burke Auditorium. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_TTL011519mine-art1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Local artist Sue Hand discusses one of the 53 acrylic paintings she has on display at the Widmann Art Gallery at King&#8217;s College. An additional seven in the series, which she calls &#8216;Coal Breaker Communities: Faded Memories,&#8217; didn&#8217;t fit into the gallery, but you can see what they look like if you attend a lecture Hand will give 7 p.m. Thursday in the college&#8217;s Burke Auditorium. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_TTL011519mine-art2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">A detail from the Harry E. Colliery, once located in Swoyersville, shows Theodore Myga, a World War I veteran who realized a co-worker at the local colliery looked familiar. It turned out Myga, who came from an area near Prague, had taken his fellow immigrant, who was from Italy, into custody as a prisoner of war years earlier in Europe. The two men laughed about it, Hand said, and had no hard feelings. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_TTL011519mine-art2.jpg</photo1><caption1>A detail from the Harry E. Colliery, once located in Swoyersville, shows Theodore Myga, a World War I veteran who realized a co-worker at the local colliery looked familiar. It turned out Myga, who came from an area near Prague, had taken his fellow immigrant, who was from Italy, into custody as a prisoner of war years earlier in Europe. The two men laughed about it, Hand said, and had no hard feelings. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_TTL011519mine-art3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">In her painting of the Butler Breaker, once located in Pittston, Sue Hand incorporated an image of one of her forebears, a mine carpenter named Evans. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_TTL011519mine-art3.jpg</photo2><caption2>In her painting of the Butler Breaker, once located in Pittston, Sue Hand incorporated an image of one of her forebears, a mine carpenter named Evans. </caption2><photoCredit2>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_TTL011519mine-art4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Paintings in the &#8216;Coal Breaker Communities: Faded Memories&#8217; series cover a wall in the Widmann Art Gallery at King&#8217;s College.  Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_TTL011519mine-art4.jpg</photo3><caption3>Paintings in the &#8216;Coal Breaker Communities: Faded Memories&#8217; series cover a wall in the Widmann Art Gallery at King&#8217;s College.  Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </caption3><photoCredit3>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Art exhibit features people, structures of the past</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mary Therese Biebel</p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What: </strong>Coal Breaker Communities: Faded Memories</p><p><strong>Who:</strong> by artist Sue Hand</p><p><strong>When: </strong>on exhibit through Feb. 15</p><p><strong>Where: </strong>Widmann Gallery at King&#8217;s College, Wilkes-Barre</p><p><strong>Info: </strong>570-208-5589</p><p><strong>Meet-the-Artist reception: </strong>6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 18 in the gallery, Sheehy-Farmer Campus Center<strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Curran Lecture: </strong>In conjunction with the exhibit,Sue Hand will show and discuss images from her latest creative project 7 to 8:30 p.m. Jan. 17 in the Burke Auditorium, William G. McGowan School of Business during the annual Monsignor John J. Curran Lecture.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

King’s College hosts ‘Coal Breaker Communities’