TRUE TO LIFE
As an artist-in-residence with the arts non-profit ArtReach, then based out of Lillstreet Art Center, I was given the opportunity to create this foyer mosaic for True To Life Foundation's new space at 89th and Stony Island. The building was a former library and social security office, and held the promise of after-school programming, arts classes for children, adults and seniors, and parties galore.
The original concept for the mosaic was developed by the students who learned to craft it (as I was learning too!) circa 2016- an underwater scene that melds into light reflected off the surface of the water, and the sun rising above it. There are fish and underwater creatures, seastars and kelp, made from handmade terracotta tiles, vitreous glass, an assortment of variously-sourced tile and mirror. As we moved into the space and continued mosaic programming, the students and I continued working to cover the remaining foyer walls in a vast intergalactic expanse of hand-crafted planets, glass baubles, rocks and stars (shout out to Pratt and Larson's remnant room of delights where I procured an assortment of hexagram tiles).
I was so fortunate to continue teaching both ceramics and mosaic at True to Life throughout those many years with the support of Lillstreet for clay and firings, and Velinda Alexander, True to Life's executive director, who encouraged many more mosaic projects to fill blank walls in the new space. The space is still growing and expanding in lovely ways (see article about the fantastic exterior mural here: https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/09/08/kayla-mahaffeys-new-mural-brightens-calumet-heights-community-center/).