What do a church, a brewery, and an elementary school have in common? Each is home to art installations created by the Artifactory, a partnership between two Delaware County artists who work with those groups to create intricate mosaic pieces from recycled materials. They can be butterflies, birds, flowers, portraits, or abstracts, but each tells a unique story.
“We take old, recycled materials and break them up,” says Lynda Elias, a retired art teacher who founded the Artifactory at Delaware Mosaics along with fellow retired teacher Virginia Corwin. “Then we create something new and special from it — it’s truly beautiful to see. And it’s different every time, depending on the materials used and the light that is reflected from the mosaic.”
Elias attended the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. After she retired, she returned to Philadelphia for a visit and was inspired by large mosaics on the sides of many of the buildings and knew it was a technique she wanted to learn and take with her to Delaware.
One of Lynda's original mosaics.
Now she and Corwin teach groups in central Ohio and beyond to create those free-form mosaics that are then installed as permanent works of art.
A project begins when an organization in the community reaches out to the artists with ideas for a mosaic. Elias and Corwin meet with the group to develop a design, but it’s the group’s responsibility to gather recycled materials (or make their own tiles) to be used in the project. Once the ceramics and mirror pieces are ready, Elias draws the design on a cement board or a wall. Broken tiles are added, piece by piece. “It’s like building a puzzle,” she says.
The groups use the Zagar method, created by Philadelphia artist Isaiah Zagar. The traditional mosaic method involves placing materials in wet cement to make a design or a picture and then allowing it to dry. The Zagar method places the tiles and recycled materials on a flat surface and then adds grout around them.
Elias and her daughter, who is also a teacher, attended a workshop given by Isaiah Zagar. “I wanted to do this to show people that everyone can create something. I teach people this easy method as a way of expressing themselves. They can do something to make the community more beautiful,” says Elias.
The interactive aspect of creating a mosaic has always been important to Corwin, who has 40 years of experience teaching and counseling children with special needs. “The process brings people together,” she says. “It encourages collaborative creativity and interaction.”
Elias and Corwin work with teachers and students at schools in the region as part of their art classes, to prepare large mosaics to be installed at the schools. “They get to use hammers to break things and use dangerous materials to make art. It’s empowering,” Corwin says.
At Wickliffe Progressive Elementary in Upper Arlington, for example, students created “Beatles Garden” to honor the school’s late principal and his love for Beatles music. Each large mosaic represents a different Beatles song, including “Yellow Submarine” (in the bottom photo on the opposite page) and “Here Comes the Sun” (top photo, this page). Students selected the songs and created the mosaics as part of their curriculum.
Wickliffe’s art teacher, Lindsay Bennett, invited Elias and Corwin to the school because she saw the project as one that would include every student in every grade level. “This project was fun and meaningful for all our students, who have a wide range of abilities. From kindergarten through fifth grade, everyone was to participate.”
In addition to Wickliffe Elementary, some of the organizations and businesses that have commissioned and created mosaics include Smith Elementary School, Heritage Middle School in Hilliard, Stratford Ecological Center, Restoration Brew, the City of Dublin, the Senior Center of Delaware County, and the Orange Branch of the Delaware Public Library.
The artists take pride in building connections through their art. “We want the mosaics in our community to be accessible and enjoyed by all people,” says Corwin.
