Normal Heights Community Development Corportation

We are fundraising to underwrite the costs of a new mosaic mural in Normal Heights. The campaign is being sponsored by the Normal Heights Community Development Corporation, Adams Avenue Business Association and Normal Heights Urban Arts Group. We are asking community members and art patron's for your financial support to install a permanent artwork in Adams Avenue Park at 35th Street.

 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION- “Kaleidoscope of Butterflies” mosaic mural project will be installed on the exterior brick walls (west & northwest) of the Adams Recreation Center building, located at 3491 Adams Avenue, San Diego, CA 92116. The funding goal is to raise a total of $50,000 to cover all costs of the project, such as: quality mosaic materials, insurance, fabrication, assembly, permits, engineering, organization of community hands-on workshops/volunteer involvement, delivery, installation, and maintenance. Mosaic artist Kim Emerson has recently signed a “Deed of Gift” agreement with the City of San Diego, Commission for Arts and Culture. After the mosaic mural is installed the “title” of the artwork will be “transferred” to the City and added to the City’s civic art collection.

This permanent mosaic mural artwork project will stand-out as an everlasting addition to Normal Heights and the City of San Diego. The project will cultivate a sense of place and pride at the Adams Community Park, and the artist guarantees that the project will have world-class excellence in design, supreme integrity of craftsmanship, and durability.

Kim Emerson has been creating mosaic art for public and private spaces in San Diego since 1991. She is internationally recognized and lives, works, and teaches art in Normal Heights. Her large-scale public projects and fine art gallery work can be seen throughout San Diego County, the US, and abroad. This mosaic mural project was designed especially for her own community of Normal Heights and it offers contemporary, timeless, and meaningful imagery to an older and well-established urban area of the City that is often overlooked.

The project celebrates the diversity, vibrancy, and rich culture of the community. The design of the artwork consists of abstracted multi-butterfly wings overlapping and that appear to be ever-changing with flickers of color and pattern. This theme or imagery also expresses the delicate and thriving relationship of the urban vs. the natural environment that is Normal Heights. The mosaic mural is designed to appeal to people of all ages and backgrounds - reflecting humanity at large. It is meant to be colorful, positive, happy, cheerful and something that everyone can relate to. The multiple colors and patterns of the enlarged abstract butterfly wings represent different peoples with unique backgrounds coming together as a vibrant and healthy community.

Overall, the mural dimensions will be 18’ long, by 8’ high. The outer shape will be curvilinear and organic in form. The mural will be made-up of a multiple of mosaic’d panels, pieced together and each bolted to the wall(s). The project is site-specific connecting and wrapping the corner, designed for both the west and north facades of the exterior brick Adams Recreation Center that was built in the 1980’s. The mural is designed to connect where the two facades meet at the most prominent corner of the building, facing the Adams Community Park to the west and the busy Adams Avenue to the north. Once all the funds are raised, the entire assembly and fabrication of the mural is estimated to take nine months.

 

Artist’s Contact Information: Website: www.kimemersonmosaics.com

Front of Adams Rec Center


Future Mural Site

Future Mural Site

Kim Emerson Cutting Tile

Cut Tile For Mosaic Art

Cut Tile For Mosaic Art

Artist's Rendering

 

Artist's Rendering