A Mosaic House of Cheer

In my prior blog post I showed some of the poignant 9-11 memorials I've seen in New York City and this house at 108 Wyckoff Street in the Boerum Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn is in a way another one.  It is the home of artist Susan Gardner.  After all the sad events of 9-11 Garner began gluing pieces of shells, beads, buttons, jewelry, tiles, mirrors, broken cups/dishes and much more into a large mosaic flower on the outside wall of her brownstone house. She wanted the mosaic to be a celebration of life, and to share it with her neighbors and people who passed by to cheer them.

Gardner like the initial mosaic flower so much she began to add more and more mosaic designs to the house, and has been adding more to it every summer since 2001, with the hopes of someday covering the entire building facade.

Gardner says that the neighborhood has embraced and encouraged the project and even leave her bits of materials, such as a broken cup or mirror. 

All photos can be enlarged to see more detail by clicking on them once, and then again when they open on a new page.

Some of the house's mosaic details.

A portion of the ground in front is also a mosaic.

The fence is covered with mosaic pieces....

.....and so are the window guards.

The mosaics reach up to the second floor windows, and so about half of the brownstone's exterior is covered.

As well as being an artist Ms.Gardner teaches painting and sculpture as the head of the Studio Program at Yeshiva University.  You can see some of her paintings and more photos of the house on her website.

She hopes her mosaic house will cheer and amuse all that see it.  I think it does just that! What do you think?


I'm linking to Mary at the Little Red House blog's Mosaic Monday.  Please visit Mary today to see her beautiful photo mosaics and the links to all the blogs participating today!