Description

If there was ever a “higher calling” for the work of a public art mosaic artist, it would be to help bring some healing and resolve to a wounded community. Our client’s mission for these 3 park projects was to acquire and transform abandoned or dilapidated urban parcels of land into healthy green park spaces that are located in densely built areas of Los Angeles County. 

Wishing Tree Park is situated between unincorporated East Torrance and West Carson. The LANLT acquired 8.5 acres of land that had once been a toxic industrial chemical waste site, homes were built, and then serious illness fell upon the uninformed residents. The Del Amo Action Committee (DAAC) was founded, a class-action lawsuit ensued, people moved away, the houses were raised, and the toxic ground sat vacant waiting for a serious cleanup. Several decades later the land was purchased by the LANLT, the soil was removed and replaced, and the area is now a beautiful and vibrant public park.  From community input, the inspiration for the mosaic designs came from the surrounding wildlife that returned to the land decades after, and also positive words of inspiration written in both English and Spanish.

Madison Avenue Park, located in the City of Los Angeles, in the community of East Hollywood, was a project sponsored by The TPL. The parcel of land there was once an apartment complex that had burned and sat vacant for decades. The very popular park design is divided into one half being a play space for children, and the other half is a community garden with an education center building. The inspiration for the design came from Henri Matisse’ famous painting entitled “The Red Tablecloth” with tiles of the vegetables that would be grown in the community garden. The donor’s names were cleverly designed as place settings at the table, with plates for the names, alongside knives, spoons and fork tiles made of hand-rolled clay.

Bicentennial Park, is located in the City of Hawthorne, and it was developed as a public tennis court park in 1976. Through the years, the urban space, with apartment buildings densely packed all around, sat in ruin and was a magnet for unwanted gang activity. The TPL purchased the land and developed it as a green space, designed with play equipment, a walking path, and a splash pad for summertime water cooling. The mosaic design inspiration came from wildlife in nature that flies; hummingbird, honey bees, and Monarch butterflies.

For public art projects such as these, Kim Emerson typically works with the beautiful high-fired ceramic tile made by the former Quarry Tile Company, now Fire Clay Tile. First cut by hand on a wet-saw, then nipped further into smaller pieces, the tesserae was laid dry into place with tweezers on tables in the artist’s studio. While assembling the designs for each project, the mosaics were temporarily segmented face-up with special clear tile-tape. The artist’s design, originally a watercolor painting, was enlarged to a full-scale print on paper, which is known as a mosaic “cartoon”. After many more involved steps, the taped, numbered, and mapped segments of mosaics were carefully transported to the site, and directly adhered with thin-set and grout to the newly constructed concrete structures.

The mosaic artwork designs for these 3 parks incorporated engraved or etched tiles that were specially made by Tara Tarant of La Jolla Stone & Etching. For example, a total of 184 names of community members and families were commemorated on leaf shaped cut tiles, and incorporated into the mosaic artwork at Wishing Tree Park. All 3 parks feature a donor recognition mosaic located somewhere in each park. These donor components incorporate engraved named tiles with logos, a “storyboard” explaining about the history of the site, and recognition of all of the public agencies and non-profit organizations who financially supported the project. At both Madison Avenue Park and Bicentennial Park, the artist conducted community hands-on tile making days where children and adults from the community worked together rolling-out fresh wet clay that were shaped into tiles, and painted glaze on bisqued tiles. The community’s work was brought back to the artist’s studio, where the tiles were fired in their kiln, and later incorporated into the overall mosaic artwork.