Joy Cunningham (left) and Ashley McNeil apply pieces of glass mosaics onto the MORE Art symbol to be installed in June on the Roxbury Mills building in Fredericksburg. SUZANNE CARR ROSSI/THE FREE LANCE-STAR View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

City mural project promotes diversity

MOREart! project progressing

By LAURA L. HUTCHISON

Date published: 4/28/2007

By LAURA L. HUTCHISON

Boxes of crayons sat on tables, each with large type proclaiming "64 DIFFERENT colors."

The students waiting to use the colored globs of wax were nearly as varied.

Different ages, different ethnicities, different genders and backgrounds.

They have two things in common: art and a desire to promote understanding and diversity in the community.

The students are members of the MOREart! team, which is creating a 31-foot-wide, 8-foot-tall mosaic mural that will be installed on the back of a warehouse building at Roxbury Farm and Garden Center in Fredericksburg. The mural will be visible from Jackson Street.

The group has been meeting weekly since February to begin creating pieces indoors that will then be applied to the building the week of June 18.

On a recent Wednesday afternoon, as the trees were beginning to green outside, the large leaves that are a featured component of the mosaic design were also getting green.

"It's really interesting to see it coming together," said Krystle Demboski, 16.

It's not an easy process.

First, 31-foot strips of paper were laid across the stage at the original Walker-Grant School. The design was outlined in black and white.

The students needed to color in this pattern, called a "cartoon." Hence, the crayons.

The mosaic contains 23 different colors, plus mirror shards, and black and white glass "globs."

Once colored, the cartoon is separated into 20 blocks, taped to boards and covered with plastic, then mesh.

Mosaic tiles are smashed, then applied to the mesh, according to the color on the cartoon. The mesh will be stuck to the building's walls in June.

The background of the design, a sea of blue, will be directly applied to the walls.

"We have a lot to do," said Joy Cunningham, 14, looking down at a leaf taking shape on a board she shared with Ashley McNeil, 13.

Ashley was snipping thin strips of black tile into pieces that would be the leaf's outline.

When Angus Hamilton, 14, was given similar strips to cut, he looked at them quizzically.

"They look like burnt French fries," he proclaimed.

And as the mosaic has begun coming together, so have its artists. And that's the point, said artist Suzanne Moe, who created the project.

"The art team is working together beautifully," Moe said.

PARTICIPANTS Joy Cunningham, 14; Krystle Demboski, 16; Rudy Gutierrez, 18; Amanda Hamilton, 16; Angus Hamilton, 14; Katie Littleton, 14; Ashley McNeil, 13; D'Angelo Veney, 12; Pierre Woodson, 11 COORDINATORS Suzanne Moe has been a self-employed graphic artist in downtown Fredericksburg since 1989. In 2000, she received training from internationally acclaimed mosaic mural artist Isaiah Zagar and worked on a community-mural piece in the inner city of Philadelphia. She wanted to bring that same kind of community project to Fredericksburg. Andrea Shreve-Taylor met Moe in 2002 and they since have collaborated on several pieces. Taylor created the "Golden Retriever" mosaic dog for the "Pawsitively Fredericksburg" community art project. She teaches mosaics at Bluebird Studio in Stafford. She has several years of experience as a project manager and educator. Both Moe and Taylor are members of the Society of American Mosaic Artists, and Taylor serves on the organization's advisory board. CORPORATE SPONSORS PermaTreat Pest Control (Joe Wilson), Spangler Erkert & Associates (Jan Erkert), Union Bank & Trust, City of Fredericksburg Department of Economic Development and Tourism, Fredericksburg Area Community Relations Organization PERSONAL CORPORATE DONATIONS Michael Colangelo (Johnson Realty Advisors), Wendy Davison (Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce ) MULTICULTURAL OUTREACH EFFORT BOARD MEMBERS Financial support: Dori Eglevsky, Richard Garnett, Cindye Brown, Ana Chichester, Marci Catlett, Susan Spears, Xavier Richardson In-kind contributions: Suzanne Moe, Gaye Adegbalola, Roy McAfee, Brenda Harris OTHER IN-KIND DONATIONS Andrea Shreve-Taylor, leading the project w/ Suzanne Moe; Fredericksburg City Public Schools, allowing use of the original Walker-Grant School. Roxbury Mills Farm & Garden Center, providing installation site, pressure washing, storage and more. Kids Cafe (Fred Jerman), part of the Fredericksburg Area Food Bank, providing healthy snacks each week. Rich Newpher from Commonwealth Lighting & Hardware of Virginia, donated contractor-grade glass. Monica Schulz, hosted a workshop for the youth at the beginning of the program. University of Mary Washington art class, Carole Garmon's 20 Sculpture II students held an interactive sale on a recent First Friday that raised several hundred dollars for MOREart!

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Date published: 4/28/2007