An artist with a Lebanon County lineage stretching back to before the origins of the United States is part of a select group chosen to decorate a very familiar symbol commemorating the country’s 250th anniversary.
Hawk Krall, 48, illustrated a fiberglass replica of the Liberty Bell – one of two representing Dauphin County – that now sits outside Hershey’s Chocolate World. It’s part of the Bells Across PA project sponsored by America250PA.
Krall said he was chosen for the bell project because of another local art piece he’d done.
The America250PA bell painted by Hawk Krall outside Hershey’s Chocolate World. (Provided photos)
“The Hershey people saw my work at Tröegs (Independent Brewing) – they saw the mural, I think, specifically – and they (said), we have this project that we’re doing with America250, which is the bell – would you like to do a Hershey thing,” Krall said in a phone interview.
It was that mural, coupled with Krall’s extensive family history in the area, that led to his selection, he said. The bell project has other personal significance for him as well.
Hawk Krall’s permanent mural in the Walking Tour path at Troegs Independent Brewing. (Kira Schlechter)
“We always went to Hersheypark growing up with my grandparents,” he said. “Both my parents are amusement park enthusiasts. My father is one of the roller coaster people, he’s in the American Coaster Enthusiasts.
“So it was a cool thing – this is fun, this is a little different. Most of what I do is Philadelphia-based, or at least had been when I was in the city, so it was cool to do something a little different.”
The bell project took about a year altogether, Krall said.
“There was a lot of waiting for the actual bell to arrive – it wasn’t a year working,” he clarified. “It was a couple months of sketches that had to be approved by multiple parties, because I was working directly with Hershey and then also working with (America250PA).
“Hershey had to approve it, and then they sent it to other people. And then Hershey has separate companies, like the park and the candy aren’t the same company. So they were like, we want roller coasters in there, but then that has to be approved by the park in the way the roller coaster’s drawn.”
Once his designs were approved, nothing could be changed, Krall said.
“And then everything was approved by everyone and I think it was probably six months before I got the bell,” which was delivered to his house, he said.
He did the initial sketches on paper, he said, and described the process of getting those drawings onto the bell.
“I took my sketch and just by hand transferred it onto the bell in light blue pencil,” he said. “That was probably the hardest part of the whole process, because a flat piece of paper doesn’t really accurately represent the curved dimensions of a round bell.
“I split the bell up into quadrants, which is kind of the same thing I do for murals. I split it up into eight quadrants – basically it was a sketch for each side. And then I just put painter’s tape on the bell to create these eight quadrants and then just freehand drew the sketch onto the bell.”
The bell is filled with plenty of familiar images, from Milton Hershey himself to the Kissmobile to Hershey’s characters and the town’s trademark smokestacks.
“(And) I just used house paint” to paint the bell, Krall said.
“It’s pretty weatherproof, it should last a while – I know how to use it on a fiberglass object,” he said. “It can be a little bit of a struggle, especially doing details – some of the colors you have to do multiple layers of paint for it to be opaque, like the reds and the yellows. I just had it in my garage and I worked on it. It wasn’t a rushed thing; I’d work on other jobs and then work on the bell for (like) half a day.”
Commemorative pieces are nothing new for Krall; he also decorated one of the donkey sculptures displayed at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Hawk Krall painted this donkey sculpture for the DNC in Philadelphia. (Photo by Steve Weinik; courtesy of Hawk Krall)
“That was a very similar thing, of doing (an initial) sketch, but then we did those onsite in a warehouse,” he said.
Krall was born and raised in the Philadelphia suburb of Jenkintown and lives in North Wales, Montgomery County. But he comes from a long line of Lebanon countians who have been in the area since the 1700s. He says he visited Lebanon regularly growing up.
“My father was born and raised in Lebanon – his family, the Kralls, go way back,” he said. “They were Pennsylvania German, or Swiss, Mennonites. Some of my father’s family have a bunch of farms – there were a lot of Krall farms. My father’s aunt had a working farm, but apparently some of my dad’s other uncles also had farms.
“On the other side, my grandmother was a Hauck, which is kind of where my name, Hawk, comes from. I don’t really have confirmation of this, but some of the people in my grandmother’s family, instead of using the spelling ‘H-A-U-C-K’ used the spelling ‘H-A-W-K.’ They were Pennsylvania Dutch, Pennsylvania German.”
His grandmother’s family also had farms in the area, he said.
“There are Hauck farms that, at least according to my father, were dairy farms that were sending milk to the Hershey Company,” he said. “My dad remembers my grandmother loading up the trolley – they would have the trolleys that came through and picked up the milk and took it to the factory.”
Hawk Krall. (Provided photo)
He also comes from a long line of artists and artisans. After completing high school at Jenkintown High School, he graduated from the Pratt Institute School of Art in Brooklyn, New York.
“My dad was an illustrator, an art director, a graphic designer, for a variety of different places,” he said. “He worked for a crossword puzzle magazine, (the ones) they used to have in the grocery store – he designed the covers of those.
“My mom is a painter, and she’s taught for many years. She taught kids after school and then taught at a bunch of different schools. Now she teaches mostly senior citizens, like nighttime classes, and in her free time, does paintings of carousel horses and trees. My mother doesn’t have a gallery, she just makes art. She makes insane amounts of art all the time when she’s not doing other things. She’s the real deal.”
His parents also came by their artistic bent naturally, Krall said.
“My Pennsylvania Dutch grandmother did crocheting, like decorative craft stuff, but my mom’s family are professional illustrators going back a couple generations,” he said. “My grandparents on my mom’s side were both illustrators and painters. Even my great-grandparents were painters and sculptors (on) my mom’s side – they were from Philly and taught at the University of the Arts.”
Krall’s artistic style is very distinctive: colorful, graffiti-inspired, densely-detailed, cartoon-esque drawings filled with his trademark bubble letters. Living in Philadelphia for 20 years inspired his style, as did one of his early influences, New York-based multi-disciplinary artist Red Grooms.
“He was an illustrator, a cartoonist; he also did these three-dimensional installations, like sculptural things, these very cartoony, outlandish things,” he said. “I saw a big show of his when I was like 10 or something, (and) that was my inspiration for 10 years of my life of making art. And then I was very into alternative indie underground comics from the ’90s till currently – there’s definitely some artists in that genre that do dense, urban scenes of city life, crazy layers and signs and graffiti.”
His personal artistic style coalesced around his college years.
“If you’re specifically asking about the dense, cityscape style, that probably developed around 2008 or so,” he said. “I was doing some freelance illustration, but it was mostly caricatures, like portraits. I had a show at Space 616 (a DIY art space), I think that was 2008, 2007. I did a whole show of work in that style – black and white cityscapes with tons of detail.”
His work has “definitely gotten more detailed and more accurate” and also more researched, Krall said.
“For the Hershey piece, I was looking at references for everything, for old buildings, and trying to get everything as accurate as possible,” he said.
Krall has done editorial illustration for publications like the Baltimore Citypaper, Philadelphia Weekly, Philadelphia Magazine, and the Village Voice. He also has large murals displayed in various locations across Philadelphia.
He hand-draws all his work, he said.
“For illustrations or for clients in print, I do often color in Photoshop, but all of my drawings are hand-done,” he said. “I do pencil sketches, and then I do finals in India ink and brush on paper. If it’s going to be a visually-delivered illustration, I scan it in the computer and I do color in Photoshop.
“The large format stuff, the murals, it really depends on the project. For (the bell), obviously it was hand-painted because it’s really the only way to do that. I have done murals that are digital installs, where I do an ink drawing and scan it. And then if they want color, I do color on the computer and then send it as a massive 500-gigabyte file that they print out.”
Much of Krall’s work is for the food and beverage industry, including last year’s merch launch for the super-popular brand Mike’s Hot Honey. He worked in restaurants for years before becoming a full-time professional artist, adding he was always interested in food.
A Krall piece displayed in the Art Gallery at Tröegs Independent Brewing.
Hawk Krall’s 2017 poster, used in Philadelphia, for Tröegs’ inaugural First Squeeze campaign celebrating the release of Nugget Nectar.
“I loved Anthony Bourdain when he was still around – I was reading all his books when I was working in the kitchen,” he said. “I was like why am I not bringing all this knowledge … this experience, into my art?
“I did some comics about working in kitchens, which was cool, people liked them, but career-wise (they) didn’t do that much.”
His break in that field came when he started doing work for the website/food blog Serious Eats.
“I started doing a hot dog column for them once a week – I would do an illustration and a short article,” he said. “That was from 2008, 2009, to 2011. I’d say since then, over half my work is food related.”
The America250PA bell will be on display outside Chocolate World for the remainder of 2026.
What the future holds for the bell after that remains unclear. Organizers hadn’t responded to LebTown’s request for comment as of publication, and Krall wasn’t sure of the plans.
“I hope it’s somewhere public that people can look at it for as long as possible,” he said.
Next up on Krall’s plate is more work for Mike’s Hot Honey. He’s also doing another project in conjunction with America’s 250th birthday.
“I’m doing a big project for Goldbelly – they ship food all over the country. It’s still in the works, but it’s going to be (with) America250 (called Taste of America 250; the company has been named the program’s Official Marketplace).
“We’re going to do signature foods for every state across the country. I’m working on that right now. It’s going to be a cool project.”
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