Creation

Creation by Ann Northrup (with mosaic work by Beth Clevenstine) was inspired by a collection of photos showing clients of the Pennsylvania Asian Senior Services Center (PASSi) in East Oak Lane. Clients at the center participate in Asian arts projects, concerts, Tai Chi and other sports. The seriousness of their involvement in the arts indicated they were really living a life in art, coming to life through their art, and their art itself was coming to life. This is depicted in the scene of the two foreground calligrapher/painters who are proliferating and creating a wave at the bottom center of the mural, blown by the same wind that tosses the trees seen through a window in the mural. The white “sky” spaces between the leaves are similar to the blown paper shapes or the artwork.

The idea of art coming to life is also represented in two tapestries at the left and right of the mural, one of flying cranes and one of fan dancers. “Real” flying cranes appear on the left and right, as do “real” dancers, as if they leaped out of the tapestries. The glass mosaic crane at center top is also escaping his gold medallion.