Thursday, October 02, 2008
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
IT IS FINISHED!!
Our beautiful mosaic, which we have cared for and nurtured for these six months past, is out in the real world now. We will miss it and the time we spent together building it, but we wish it a long and happy life out there on its own, where people can see the love and attention that went into every detail, hear the important story it is telling, and read how children, community members, artists, and community organizations like Crealdé and The Golden Rule Foundation, can come together to make a thing of such beauty.
(Click on the poicture abouve to see it bigger - or better yet, stop by Hannibal Square to see it in all its glory!)
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Unveiling
Down comes the curtain! We unveiled the mosaic at a wonderful gathering of about 200 people today in Shady Park in Hannibal Square. At the count of 3 all the kids pulled the curtain down revealing the mosaic to the appreciative crowd.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Mosaic Installation Time-Lapse Movie
We shot off time-lapse pictures of the installation so you can see it go up step by step. Special thanks to my son Sam Saper for composing the music!
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Orlando Sentinel Article
Here is the article that ran in this past Sunday's Orlando Sentine -- Willy is the poster girl -- a treat on her birthday!
Sunday, February 11, 2007
UNVEILING NEXT WEEK!
Just want to remind everyone who looks at this blog that next Saturday, February 17th, from 10-12 am, the Community Mosaic at Hannibal Square, in progress for 6 months, will be UNVEILED for the public at what promised to be a fabulous dedication ceremony -- come one and all!
Saturday, February 10, 2007
It's UP!!!
What a day! We started at nine, and worked until about 5 pm. David and Ian were up on the scaffolding all day, drilling the panels in place. The rest passed up panels, added finishing tiles, ran errands, and OOOHed and AAAHed. The weather cooperated -- a beautiful day -- not too sunny, not too warm -- just perfect day to be in the park with a project.
Thanks to Willy for the Cranberry Juice" (wink wink) and Virginia for a beautful and scruptious berry tart for a much deserved celebration at the end of the day.
Tomorrow it will be in the paper. We have the seams to grout and a few tiles to add and then we are DONE!
Firefighters to the Rescue!
Thw Winter Park Fire department came and lent a hand - and a bucket truck - so we could hang the moon about 25 feet up. Everyone -- includng 6-year-old Lucy, wanted to go up, but Ian went up and put it on the wall, and then followed with thinset, tiles and grout.
Up at the top, putting the tiles on the wall, I realized that I was fulfilling a goal in my life never even knew had -- I never realized I wanted to go up in a bucket firetruck with two firemen and stick tiles on a wall, but I sure did enjoy it.
Mosaic Going Up!
We had a wireless signal for part of the day and were blogging live in the morning.
Sam's putting one of the finishing tiles on the wall.
Uploading pictures to the blog - thankd to Tom for the laptop!
David Cumbie -- installer extraordinaire!More Live Coverage!
Blogging Live from the Mosaic Installation!
Here we are! We met this morning at 9 and now it is 10 am and two panels are already up on the wall. David and Ian are hard at work, while we look on with coffee and bagels and looks of AWE!
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Super Artist!
Yesterday, thanks to Virginia, Marie, Daryl, Jan, and Willy, my five right-hand women, we finished making and sealing all 24 panels, plus the moon. At one point I asked Daryl, "Can you give me the moon?" and she said, "Ask for the moon and I'll give it to you!"
That is how I feel about this whole project. These artists and all the people and support systems have helped bring about something spectacular. We've made the moon.
We met with Niki Pierson and David Cumbie from Crealde to discuss the bottom line. Literally. We drew a chalk like where the bottom of the piece will be -- almost five feet up. That puts the top of the mosaic 15 feet in the air. That should make it visible from farther away, and put it a little more out of reach. The moon goes up very very high, in the upper left. We're talking to the Winter Park Fire Department about helping put it on the wall. We install Saturday!
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Marble Player and Litte Fairolyn
This bottom left corner of the mosaic is the memory section. When Fairolyn told the kids about the history of the Hannibal Square neighborhood, the story about the election of the Aldermen in 1887 stood out. But the kids and I were also taken by her tales of childhood in Hannibal Square. She told about kids playing marbles, and about how she and her friends would make dolls from old bottles, putting grass in the top like hair, and using it to learn to braid. So we designed part of the mosaic to be the "Memory" section, with children playing old-time games. The girl in blue is young Fairolyn, playing with her bottle doll, a basket by her side. The little boy, who is unique in the mosaic with his stained-glass face (all of the others are hand-made tiles) was designed by one of the boys in Ginny Howard's art class. He was excited to hear that his figure was featured so prominently.
Gus Henderson and the Aldermen
These dapper guys look just great in their colorful suits outlined in mirror.
Fairolyn and her grandson
Fairolyn Livingston, Hannibal Square historian, brought her grandson Kobe, who added some of the last tiles.
Grouting party
Ron Moore paid a visiit, and thanked everyone for the great work on behalf of the Winter Park Community Center.
Kimbrough taking pictures
Here's Kimbrough from the Golden Rule Foundation doing what he does best -- documenting this great project -- Thanks!
Henry grouting
Hernry Vales from The Golden Rule Foundation got right to work on the Ergood's Store panel.
grouters
Lots of helpers from Crealde and the community working sidfe by side to complete this mosaic!
Willy and daughter
Willy's daughter Virginia, who just flew in from New Zealand, (surprising Willy!), adds some tiles to the packing house building.
Last visit to Killarney
Today Kimbrough Jennings and I went to Killareny for the last time, to Ginny Howard's art class, and showed those great kids in our core group one of the mosaic panels -- the half grouted one with two big faces of the aldermen. I wanted to bring my favorite panel, the one with all of the people holding the vote signs, but it is all grouted and was too heavy! This one was great because it showed them another step in the process -- they could see how it looked grouted and ungrouted.
They were really excited and proud. One little girl said " I never thought I'd be involved in something like this." It is wonderful to think someday these kids may bring their kids by and say -- "I drew that person", or "I designed that church!" They wanted to know all the details about how it is being hung on the wall, and how big it is. i think when they finally see it, they will be amazed. it is hard to picture it. I hope a lot of them will be able to make it to the unveiling ceremony!
We are working on the invitation and the press release -- they should be finished soon. And the big grouting session is Sunday -- I hope we can finish it up.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Almost tiled! (right side)
Last Wednesday, with the help of Virginia's brother who was visiting from Boston (and offered a lot of welcome advice), we set the panels out again and photographed them from the top of a ladder. We are really coming along now!
Almost tiled! ( left side )
This is the left-hand side of the mosaic -- almost finished being tiled!
The latest news is that we have decided not to tape the seams -- instead we will let them show in the final project. That way we can continue tiling to the edge of each piece, and even GROUT in the garage, before we hang it on the wall. I'm hoping that this will go well -- hoping grout won't crack, tiles stay put, and that it will look good this way. But it really looks wonderful so far (if I do say so myself!)
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Crealdé Artists!
Willy Lopez, Lynn Tomlinson, Daryl Golden, and Virginia Maxfield stand in front of the project -- finally -- it looks like we have done something!
Community Seniors lend a hand
I brought two panels to the WPCC to have the seniors help out, as a part of an outreach class Crealde provides to senior residents of Hannibal Square.
Community members at work
Fairolyn Livingston, Hannibal Square historian, and her grandchildren, who attend the after school program in the WPCC where the mosaic will be mounted, came to the garage studio in December to work on the project.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Mosaic Plan in Color
I have been working with a team of Crealdé volunteer artists, fifth grade students at Killarney Elementary, and after-school kids at the Community Center, and kindergarteners at Dommerich Elementary, to make a broken-tile mosaic celebrating the history and heritage of Winter Park's historically African-American community in Hannibal Square, with support from The Golden Rule Foundation.
Designed by students after learning about the community’s history, the mosaic shows the story of the 1887 election, when the citizens of Hannibal Square joined together to parade across the tracks to vote. This historic event resulted in the election of two black Aldermen to the town council of Winter Park.
Above is the design in color. On the right are a group of citizens joining together to parade across the tracks to vote in the historic 1887 election when two black Aldermen were elected to the government of Winter Park. The three largest figures are intended to be Fank Israel and Walter Simpson, the elected Aldermen, and Gus Henderson, the publisher of the black newspaper, the Advocate, who rallied the voters together. The are crossing the tracks over to Park Avenue, to Ergood's Drug Store, where elections were held.
in the lower left corner are children playing marbles, and a girl with a makeshift doll made from a coke bottle, based on the colorful oral history that local historian and Hannibal Square resident Fairolyn Livingston told the project core group of students during our kick-off fieldtrip.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
In my garage
More pictures by Jenny, of a great work session in my garage yesterday - at one point we had nine people working! It is coming along -- but still so much to do!
Pictures from the Community Center
Many thanks to Jenny Starr, who is documenting the project, for these great pictures of the kids in the after school program at the Winter Park Community Center where the project will be installed. The unveiling ceremony will be February 17th.
This series of pictures starts with the first week where I showed the kids about the design and asked for their input. We came up with words that we would use on the mosaic.
The next week, we made clay house tiles. We looked at pictures of the kind of simple frame houses that people would have lived in, and talked about why the Florida environment helped shape how the houses were designed. We have about 150 houses that children have made. We will use them on the borders of the project, and also possibly on large pots for plants.
After that, the kids made tiles for the figures of the people who live and work in the buildings -- A teacher, a preacher, a barber... They looked at old photos so they could get the costumes right.
Then we cut out the letters for the words that tell the story -- they will go on the path.
Next we broke up tiles -- a lot of fun!
Then we laid out tiles one beautiful day, working outside on the grass.
Last time we started gluing on the tiles.
I'll see the kids again once the project is installed, and we fill in missing tiles.
This series of pictures starts with the first week where I showed the kids about the design and asked for their input. We came up with words that we would use on the mosaic.
The next week, we made clay house tiles. We looked at pictures of the kind of simple frame houses that people would have lived in, and talked about why the Florida environment helped shape how the houses were designed. We have about 150 houses that children have made. We will use them on the borders of the project, and also possibly on large pots for plants.
After that, the kids made tiles for the figures of the people who live and work in the buildings -- A teacher, a preacher, a barber... They looked at old photos so they could get the costumes right.
Then we cut out the letters for the words that tell the story -- they will go on the path.
Next we broke up tiles -- a lot of fun!
Then we laid out tiles one beautiful day, working outside on the grass.
Last time we started gluing on the tiles.
I'll see the kids again once the project is installed, and we fill in missing tiles.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
How's it coming along?
We spread it out to see how it is coming. There is a LOT left to do! But it is going to be BIG and BEAUTIFUL. Now is the time to get more communiiy help -- the background should be much looser... I think we need to loosen up, add more space between the tiles, and work a little faster!
Breaking tiles at the Winter Park Community Center
I wanted to put these kids here, up top, because they are the ones who use the Community Center and live in Hannibal Square. We have had some fun Wednesday afternoons with Linda Walker's help, breaking tiles, drawing, and laying out and glueing down the tiles. I look forward to visiting the seniors who have a art class there next Friday.
more helpers
Wonderful Willy who never tires, and my friends Claire and Barry helped out this past weekend.
Two faces
Here are the faces of the two aldermen. We are waiting to have the hand-made face tiles fired. We are trying to glaze two different brown skin tones. Look at their jaunty hats!
Schoolhouse
Here is a panel that is now almost complete -- a school house. the word will say "learning."
ORGANIZED!
While Daryl and I glazed tiles at Crealde, Virgina and Willy set to work and organized the project in my garage -- these color-coded boxes are great! It was wonderful to come back and find a tidy workshop instead of my usual chaos! Thanks you two!!
Laying out the words
The Killarney class and teacher Ginny Howard made these great letter tiles to spell out the themes in the mosaic. They ended up bigger than I imagined, but it will make a good graphic impact that way, I hope. Here we layed out the tiles outside my gargae to give us a sense of hwere they ought to go.
Putting 'em to work on Thanksgiving
Here is my family (here you can see my brother and my 90-year-old Grandfather) hard at work on the mosaic. My mother-in-law, my sister- and brother-in-law, my kids, my husband and my parents also pitched in...
Ergoods Store
This is the top left corner of the mosaic. It is Ergoods Store in Winter Park where the voting was held.. The boy (his name is Drew, I think) who did the drawing based it on a historic photograph in the Winter Park Library's collection that I brought in to class.
Killarney Artists at work...
Here are some of the kids laying out and sticking on the first panel of tiles. Marie and I showed them how to butter the backs with thinset and stick the tiles onto the Wedi board. Soon after this, we changed to fist laying out then lifting and gluing on the tiles in place -- the trick is to remember how each tile fits when you put it back down!
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Crealde Crew
Here are some of the fabulous Crealde helpers at work!
Daryl examines the cut clay tiles for the faces of the figures.
Daryl examines the cut clay tiles for the faces of the figures.
David stains the kids house tiles with iron oxide. These will be clear glazed, and used around the borders.
Virginia cuts mirror. Her othe key job right now is transferring the design to the Wedi board.
Willy breaks tile. Usually Marie and David are helping!
Cut out letters
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Starting to Tile!
We had a good session today at Killarney. Tomorrow I go to Dommerich Elementary where my kids are in school- I'm doing a teach-in for the entire Kindergarten (about 108 kids) in three sessions. I'm going to have them cut out tiles with cookie cutters - flowers, leaves, etc. for the background. Tomorrow my team of helpers is meeting at Crealde at 10 -- I'll be there earlier rolling slabs, but won't' return from Dommerich until 12. Kimbrough - I'll bring my camera!
Then I think we are going to move our set up to my garage so we can spread out a little and leave things out for a bit (and so I can get my visiting family involved!).
Why this turned blue when I uploaded, I don't know!
I talked to Mary Ann of the WP Historical Society and she sent me a couple of pictures of Gus Henderson and a page of the advocate. He doesn't look unlike the fellow we have in his place -- if we just add a moustache I think we are set. I see they had several kinds of hats they wore -- can we adapt the hats to fit these? The guy on the right already seems to have a top hat -- let's go with that for him, let Gus have the straw hat, and maybe give the middle guy a bowler?
Ginny gave me all the word tiles, which look good, but are quite big. I hope they will fit.
Sheesh - I just remembered I have to go to the Community Center tomorrow, too...
Lynn
Then I think we are going to move our set up to my garage so we can spread out a little and leave things out for a bit (and so I can get my visiting family involved!).
Why this turned blue when I uploaded, I don't know!
I talked to Mary Ann of the WP Historical Society and she sent me a couple of pictures of Gus Henderson and a page of the advocate. He doesn't look unlike the fellow we have in his place -- if we just add a moustache I think we are set. I see they had several kinds of hats they wore -- can we adapt the hats to fit these? The guy on the right already seems to have a top hat -- let's go with that for him, let Gus have the straw hat, and maybe give the middle guy a bowler?
Ginny gave me all the word tiles, which look good, but are quite big. I hope they will fit.
Sheesh - I just remembered I have to go to the Community Center tomorrow, too...
Lynn
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Mosaics We Like
Two Pictures of a Chicago Public Art Group Mosaic using Isaiah Zagar-inspired direct method. We would like the same colorful, free style. I'm wondering how they make the grout-space outlines?
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Lynn at Killarney
Here I am a couple of weeks ago at Killarney Elementary. The kids are working on designs for the mosaic.
Today, Carlo from Crealde is heading to Tampa to get the infamous Wedi board, a kind of light weight cement board that the artists on the mosaic Yahoo groups recommend. Because there is a concern that the Community Center may one day be renovated, we wanted to make the mosaic on removable panels. This addded a level of complications, but also has some benefits: we can bring the panels to the schools rather than always bringing the artists and students to the site. Wedi board has a foam core, which makes it much lighter than traditional backer board. Since I have to carry these panels to the far reacher of the Killarney campus, I thought it would be woirth the effort and expense (3 times more expensive) to get the Wedi Board. I hope it turns out to be good stuff.
Today I am heading to Crealde, then later to the community center.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Crealde Helpers
Here is my wonderful team of volunteer artists at Crealde School of Art: Marie, Virginia, Darryl, Heather, Me, and Willy.
These generous, talented,and fun artists all worked together to take drawings done by the fifth-grade students from Killarney Elementary, reduced and enlarged them, and created a master layout. Here we are rolling out a large sheet of photo backdrop paper, kindly given by Rick Lang and the photo department. We (Virginia mostly!) used a grid to transfer the drawings onto this life-sized (10ft. by 18 ft.) version of the design.
Field trip to the site
the kids arrive at the site
Peyer Schreyer, director of Crealde, and a long-time Hannibal Square supporter, shows the students the current mural and talks about the chance to build a new, permanent tribute to the history of this community.
Fairolyn Livingston, Hannibal Square historian, gave a moving presentation on the history of the neighborhood, the 1887 election, her own childhood, and the importance of community pride.
Ron Moore, Supervisor of the Winter Park Community Center, welcomed the participants.Project director and lead artist Lynn Tomlinson helped students brainstorm based on the presentations they have just heard. She asks them to find visual elements to bring the stories to life.
Ron Moore, Supervisor of the Winter Park Community Center, welcomed the participants.Project director and lead artist Lynn Tomlinson helped students brainstorm based on the presentations they have just heard. She asks them to find visual elements to bring the stories to life.
Killarney kids were engaged and come up with some great ideas.
Killarney kids spent some time looking at the images and reading the stories in Crealde's Heritage collection for inspiration.
Several project team members with the ideas the kids generated.WPCC old mural
Here is the current mural on the wall of the community center in Hannibal Square, the historically African-American neighborhood in Winter Park, Florida. You can see that whne they remodeled the building and added a door and ramp, it went right smack in the middle of the mural, which had been centered on the wall. This basically ruined the current mural, which has also faded and peeled in the Florida sunshine.
After thinking of tiling over the current image, and keeping its design intact, we decided for serveral reasons to start pretty much from scratch, using this mural as inspiration. First, since we are going to a lot of time and effort to make it a permanent tile mosaic, and there is a chance of further renovations or remodelling, we plan to build the mosaic on panels that could be removed if necessary.
Second, because of the door placement, we've decided to move the whole design over to the left, between the two doors, instead.
closeup old mural
This close-up of the current mural shows the problems with the paint peeling and the rough stucco texture that made a painted mural difficult. We do want to keep the child-designed quality and simplicity that this mural captured.
Old Mural Sign
This is the sign posted by the old mural. Our new mosaic will portray the same historical moment as this mural did.
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