“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
