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Watsonville city garage and casa Batlló

Published by gertrud

“In the rose garden”, Asian flower grower, 6x18m, design by Juan Fuentes, fabrication into mosaic design Kathleen Crocetti, crafted by community volunteers, installed by local company Rinaldi Tile and marble Inc.

What is it with casa Batlló in Barcelona/Spain and the city garage of Watsonville/CA?
Casa Batllò in Barcelona is advertised as the “House of inspiration”. The façade of casa Batllò is covered in beautiful mosaic.

The city garage of Watsonville/CA is a 5 storie park house (as we Germans say) that shall inspire inhabitants of Watsonville to be involved in ，”Creative Place Making” and contemplate and take pride in their immigration history.
It’s grayish white facade is in the process of being covered by beautiful mosaics.

Antonio Gaudì designed the casa Batlló between 1904-6 in his modernist style playing with form and colors for interior and exterior.

Casa Batlló, Barcelona, Photo Sara Darcay , downloaded from Unsplash.com

The people of Watsonville designed the mosaics for the mosaics of the city garage building…

“Our project Watsonville Brillante aims to represent multi-ethnic patterns of particular family units on the 185 horizontal portions of the garage’s exterior and place each family’s representation next to another family’s representation in such a way that their common heritages overlap with a shared visual pattern. Combined, they will represent our community as a whole.” (From the project’s website)

Artist Ket Conway submitted the design of two dragons symbols of her Chinese heritage

We don’t exactly know who made and installed the mosaics on casa Batllò at the time.

Photo Marcel Strauss, accessed via unsplash.com

In Watsonville all mosaics are being made by youth volunteers and the Watsonville community at large in a five year “community arts& empowerment “ project between 2018-23 under the direction of artistic director & manager Kathleen Crocetti.

“Rinaldi Tile and Marble “ a local company has taken on the professional installation of the mosaic panels as the main sponsor of this community mosaic project.

The city of Watsonville commissioned the art piece and gave the building of a community centre to be the city’s mosaic workshop for 5 years.

Please read more about what’ s going on “At the Muzzio”.

Youth volunteers at Muzzio Community Centre in Watsonville

This little town of mine let it shine

Published by gertrud

Watsonville/CA, street view with giant community mosaic murals at the city parking garage in the background

…. this verse slightly altered from a song I once sang with my choir comes to my mind being around Kathleen Crocetti and her mosaic projects in Watsonville. Her dream is to make Watsonville the Barcelona of California together with the young community of the 50.000 inhabitants of a small agriculture town situated in the fertile back garden of Monterey Bay/California. A lot of nutrition is produced and exported here on large farms with immigrants hands. Strawberries, lettuce, artichokes, apples you name it have been tended to since over 100 years by many groups of immigrant workers. Some stayed. At the moment 85% of Watsonville’s population is of Mexican heritage. Still the average income here is a quarter less than that of near by Santa Cruz/CA. The difference in between pitoresque coast dwellings like Monterey or Carmel and Watsonville is striking on first sight. In the coast cities individual wealth designs beautiful cost homes and inviting shop fronts and brings in enough tax money to make sturdy wooden public walkways with views of the beautiful coast.

Coast at Carmel /CA

Members of the city council at the Ribbon cutting ceremony of the COVID 19 memorial in Watsonville/CA on September 14, 2022

But watch it: in Watsonville the COMMUNITY gets together to beautify their environment with mosaic art. Yesterday I was fortunate to be present at the ribbon cutting ceremony of a butterfly sculpture decorated with two types of mosaic. This is Watsonville’s memorial for their citizens that died of COVID 19. Much harder hit than other areas the city is mourning until now 105 death coursed by the pandemic.
Kathleen Crocetti, the mosaic artist, bidding for the public grant went to speak to several community members that lost beloved ones. In conversation with the community the symbol of the butterfly was found. The butterfly is representing life that transcends into death in Mexican culture. As a senior public artist Kathleen took young artist Monica Galvan on board to introduce her to the skills of public art.

Monica Galvan & Kathleen Crocetti artists of the COVID memorial of Watsonville/CA

The two worked each on one side of the sculpture, Kathleen in shiny glass mosaic and Monica handmade more than one thousand marigold flower heads in tile and offered the public in several open sessions to place one for a family member or friend that they are mourning. They had a good outcome of participation.

I consider myself  very fortunate to have helped finishing the butterfly sculpture on Tuesday this week. It was touching to hear the overall positive comments of the passerby’s whilst we were on our knees grouting and cleaning the Marigold flower tiles.

Watsonville COVID 19 memorial, cleaning and grouting the marigold flower tiles to get ready for the inauguration

As I am finally interning with the “community art and empowerment” project I will write more about this little town of Watsonville that is shining through it’s collectively crafted mosaics. Keep watching out for more stories on my blog!

Giant community mosaic murals at the city parking garage in Watsonville/CA

Mosaics of Bergama/Pergamon

Published by gertrud

Many of you know the famous “Pergamon Museum” in Berlin. Where is this place Pergamon? I had the chance to visit the archeological museum of the ancient city Pergamon in Turkey this summer again. 7 years ago during my mosaic conservation studies at the University Ankara I spent one day with the conservation team of Bergama Archeological Project. During that day I was given permission to photograph the mosaics from the masque mosaic floor which originates from 2.c AD. The mosaic is beautifully preserved and presented in the building Z on the Acropolis hill of the Archeological Museum Bergama . It was a joy coming back after all this time. The gallery below is a mix from my recent photos and the photos of 2007. Enjoy!

 

On our stroll through the ruins one small detail took my attention. I saw a braided pattern in a stone carving on one of the unearthed pieces exhibited which reminded me of a similar pattern in ancient mosaics. Funnily I could find this detail in one of the floor mosaics in building Z on the Akropolis Hill in the archelogical museum of Bergama.

Braided stone carving at archeological museum Bergama

braided mosaic design in floor mosaic, 2.c AD, building Z, Bergama