"Mosaic Momma with Feather and Square Babies", Public Sculpture for Norwich, NY

During the summer of 2011, youth workers and volunteers from "the Place" in Norwich, New York, engaged in a public art project with artist Kathy Creutzburg. The artist has two residences, Manhattan and Oxford, New York. The subsequent blog entries show a reverse timeline of how the public art project came to be at YMCA Camp Thompson. The public sculpture is constructed of poured pigmented concrete, glass and porcelain mosaic tiles, and steel structural components. The local youth engaged in every aspect of the project, from developing ideas about imaginary animals, to banging nails into concrete forms, to designing mosaic tile patterns. Each step reinforced collaboration between youth community members and provided them with a tangible product for their efforts. The project was possible due to the involvement of Paula Crawford, Heidi Foster, and the staff and councilors.

Buffing a Mosaic; the Final Touch On a Public Sculpture

Who does the best job buffing and shining porcelain tiles on a mosaic? Many, many small hands (with a soft cloth). Grouting tiles is easy, but removing excess grout tends to be labor intensive. -Not too much pressure, but enough to make it clean. The last stage in creating a lasting public sculpture for Chenango county residents is presenting the work of art for the surrounding community.

Applying Mosaics to Concrete Forms

After spending time building so many wooden concrete forms, perhaps the youth volunteers were surprised that there were no actual wooden parts to the concrete sculpture. It did make more sense, all the different aspects of the project, when the mosaics were applied to the surfaces of the concrete. The tactile feel of the glass and tiles, the different heights of the concrete shapes, and the different colors all came together with high impact.

Other Community Involvement with Public Sculpture

One day, the weather prevented the youth volunteers from coming to YMCA Camp Thompson. The AmeriCorps volunteers were between jobs, so they came to mix concrete for a morning. They did not anticipate that they would be doing this type of work.

On Location: Pouring Forms for Sculptures

Usually, I am familiar with a location before making a public artwork. This time, I was not. The first time that I visited YMCA Camp Thompson, I got lost in my car. It was very remote. I suppose it is not remote if one grows up with the camp. It reminded me of the summer camp I went to in central Illinois, in Piatt County. However, I was there when the summer camping season was over. With no campers around, except when the Place kids came to work, it was supremely peaceful. The youth volunteers brought the energy and excitement needed to mix the concrete and fill the forms. -Kathy Creutzburg

Building Concrete Forms for Sculpture

After the wood was pre-cut, the youth helped one another use a hammer and nails to construct the rectangular forms. Wavy sides, corrugated plastic roofing and sonatube pier rolls were incorporated into the concrete form construction to create the different "body parts" of the animal sculptures. Pigment was added for color. Some smaller forms were poured before going to the site, YMCA Camp Thompson.