Mosaic Murals

One of the biggest goals for this exchange is the creation of two mosaic murals. The design of the mural combines the two cultures - the skyline of the Chicago combined with the different patterns on clothing and turbans - all coming together under one sky and moon.


The mosaic mural project is an artistic collaboration supervised by Jeanne Walker and Sonja Henderson. Jeanne will be going to Kigali about a week beforehand and to get a head start on the mural. Our group leader Linda Mellis, as well as artists and art teachers Susan Dardar and Miriam Socoloff have been a tremendous help.

We first started by breaking the tile. That was great fun - the girls were not afraid of using the hammer. ;) Liz said it was good for releasing frustration and bad energy. ;)






Then we cut the tiles using nippers to form the picture piece by piece.











Here the piece is almost done. Part of it is already taped together so we won't accidentally ruin all the hard work that already has been done.





Some faces will be sculpted to make the whole mural more three-dimensional. Later Sonja will paint the faces and they surely will look phenomenal.



Here the scene of Millennium Park is all done and taped, ready to get on the airplane to Kigali or on the way to The CORE Center where the Chicago mural will be installed.



Last week we went to The CORE Center to draw the design on the wall where the mosaic pieces will go. We started a few outlines with the mirror pieces and put up the first birds.



Many people at The CORE Center seemed very excited about this project. And after the first day we all were saying - we can just imagine how great the whole mural will look if just birds alone already look so fantastic. :)

Look, that's The CORE Center where our mural will go! ;)