The Visions of Mother Nature Relief Mural and Bench at Youth Spirit Artworks are Completed!!

After finishing the relief mural last June my team and I finally installed and tiled the bench last Sunday April 2nd 2017. This completes the core of the "Visions of Mother Nature" project honoring Frances Townes for her many years of serving homeless youth through the Berkeley Ecumenical Chaplaincy to the Homeless and Youth Spirit Artworks. We will continue to hold tile making workshops with local schools and churches until we have enough tiles to cover the entire front facade of the YSA building. The tiling is scheduled to be completed in late August or early September. Thanks to everyone who made it happen including my youth artist team, Sally Hindman, Patti Goldstein, Wesley Horn, Mary Stackowitz, Brandon Harris, Marie Wojcek, the First Church Berkeley, and the Townes Family. Come check it out in Berkeley on Alcatraz just below Adeline on the south side of the street (1740 Alcatraz).

Here's the completed bench in front of the relief mural

A time-lapse video of the bench installation process.

Me and my YSA team after a hard days work of mural installation. (before the bench was installed)

Here's the relief mural before the bench was added It's about 10ft by 10ft. The border tiles, birds, fish, moons, and sky were all created by YSA artists and community members.

Here's a detail shot. The hexagon tiles were made by kids and church members during tile making workshops.

Here we are making tiles for the sky at Washington Elementary School.

Making tiles at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley.

Tile making detail.

Grouting.

After the install with Wes Horn who is a tile installing machine and a great artist!! http://weshornart.com/

Making animal tiles at YSA.

Laying out the mural in my studio.

Sculpting the legs of the bench which were cast in concrete.