The mosaicking day flew by. The day was started with a wooo. So much to get done with all this work coming to a head in only two more days. Many groups felt the pressure of getting it all done and they were not sure how they could get the whole mosaic completed by day's end.

We all spent the morning getting ready for our afternoon of busy Community Unity. We had our work cut out for us, but the room was totally abuzz with energy and excitement. The mosaics are looking awesome and everyone is working swimmingly together.

Late morning we had a great community art presenter, Minnie Doran (Carlow). She is a great presenter and it seems that she works in a similar fashion to myself. I think she will be a fabulous addition to the team of Mosaic the City - Ireland.

The afternoon was here in no time and the guests rolled in! At first they came in slowly but within no time the room was flooded with people. The energy was amazing. The concentration on creation was fabulous.

As with all MtC projects all our participants signed in so we could see just how many hands created these wonderful Community Unity Mosaics.

The hospital mosaic was taken down to "Hospital Street" where the entire hospital was encouraged to glue down a piece. It had much room to be filled in and we weren't sure how well the hospital would accept the work?? Time would tell.

But first we needed to make it by Hospital security.. :) By the way, I love this trolley and really must find one for Mosaic the City- Victoria.. anyone know where we can get one??

Once down in the hallway it was a mad frenzy of glue, tile and people.

The girls were run off their feet, getting participants signed in and gluing their pieces. They had to run up stairs a few times to get more glue :) Everyone was totally willing to help on the mosaic. On this mosaic alone we had more than 200 people participate. What a great day we were all having!!

"The value of the arts within a healthcare setting becomes apparent when patients, staff and visitors participate in an arts activity. There is no question of course as to the therapeutic value of the arts in general and in a highly stressful environment of a hospital, its value is even more important. When the hospital's mosaic was taken onto Hospital Street (the main hospital corridor) over 300 staff, patients and visitors participated. Consultants, doctors, nurses, housekeeping and medical students worked alongside porters, visitors to the hospital and patients to contribute to the completion of the mosaic. Hierarchical separation within the organization was broken down and new bridges were created."

After a few hours the mosaic returns up stairs. Almost totally done, the group carefully moves it back onto the table.. notice the strong men standing by watching…?? Looks heavy Trax…..

When it came back, it was almost totally done.. The team only had a few last minute pieces to add and some touch up work to do. What a great piece. It was so interesting to see how the piece evolved from the original design into the piece it now is.

GREAT COMMUNITY PIECE !!

Group One : Hospital as Heart of Community

Journal Entry Antonella
"We were until finally 'able' to shape up our mosaic with the help of passers-by and hospital staff who in less than 2 hours helped us complete what initially looked an impossible, massive task to achieve. We finally glued the final bits towards the end of day 3 with a lot of excitement which awaits final grouting."

Group Three: "Making the Symbolic Links … with Tallaght & Victoria"

Journal Entry Celine Killeen

Contributions were very personal and deliberate "I enjoyed working with everyone, didn't ever see the day going. Everyone worked so well together. It was wonderful to see doctors, nurses and other staff take the time out to join in and add their own little piece to the mosaic"

Journal Entry Netta Byrne :

"This has been a very exciting and great week and great to see our lovely mosaic progress with ideas on paper from start to its final finish."

Adam- age 2

"What started out as a day of pressure, stress, disbelief in our own capabilities and low energy, once we then got into the flow-mode turned into a day of creative explosion. Our most celebrated participant was Adam, aged 2 years, who proudly placed the two shell spirals."

The mosaic that is going back Canada took some time to come together, but with the help of all the drop-in participants it was close to done, by the end of the day.

Early in the day it was hard to imagine how we could get all the mosaicking done??? Many of us were just not sure how we could manage, but once the hoards showed up the work flew all by itself!!!

Group Four: "Bridges & Growth"

Journal Entry Veronica Heywood:

"Outside the I heard a lady as she finished her bit of mosaicking say, "I never knew before that I was creative.
"Young man when placing his chip in the "Dublin Waterways" mosaic asked where "The Kitchen" night club was. So, we pointed out where roughly Temple Bar was and he grouted in "The Kitchen" with great determination.
"The hospital worker who was engrossed in gluing pieces in was beeped….a call to duty….and regrettably had to race away."

Journal Entry Edel Campbell:
"I thought it was wonderful to see how people felt suddenly responsible for seeing that we had all of the important landmarks on our map. It was pointed out by a gentleman that we hadn't put the spire (spike) in so another lady helping us with the mosaic managed to find a pointy piece of "not mirror" (as it was not strictly allowed under safety regulations) and placed it on our mosaic so now we have 'the spike.'

"The highlight of the week was the day that the hospital members and local community were invited in to work on the Mosaics. It was like a wave of realization when all of a sudden the trickle of people through the doors became a flock - these were the people making the mosaics! They were the ones who would realize our idea. A lovely shift happened that day. For the purposes of learning what the whole process is about, it was like the perfect demonstration that saved a thousand words - surrendering ownership with grace (and perhaps just a little hesitation!)"

"It was interesting to hear also the groups feelings about getting over the ownership of the mosaics when members of the public got involved. I liked a quote I found: 'To let go is not to enable but to allow learning from natural consequences."

Journal Entry Jo Callahan:
"Many emotions and facial expressions were noted and recorded on camera. Trepidation, hesitation, participation, exhilaration. Short and sweet for some - the director placed his triangle with confidence - one single action. Others lingered longer, wanting to really create an image!

"For us, the group who did the concept design, we learned that the art of acceptance is letting go!

"'Today', members of the public came and added pieces to our mosaic. It was hard to stand back and let others take over, but I really enjoyed discussing the ideas behind the piece. It was amazing to see how enthusiastic they became and how much they wanted to participate. One of my best friends and my Mother helped too. I really appreciated the fact that they gave up their free time to help."

This photo bests shows just how busy the whole day was.. People moving, gluing, learning about each other and the art of Community Unity.. It was a jammed packed day.. what a rush.. There were actually many photos taken this day with this blur around them, truly showing the mad activity that surrounded the groups.

Group Two: "TCAC Junction between Community and Art"

Journal Entry Sharon Devlin:

"Today was a wonderful day - our work took on "its own Life." It has had so much energy pumped into it from so many different individuals. Its conception was such a natural flow of thoughts & ideas which complimented each other and gave rise to even more - something I found surprising considering we (team 2 & our neighbours) are such a diverse gathering of people.

The atmosphere created by our gathering, has been amazing and the flow of energy, creativity, and wonderful Karma has been made visible in the work that has been produced."

Journal Entry John Carpenter:
"It was a wonderful exciting learning experience working on a new project for me and teaming up with some wonderful artists. I'll come again. Feeling proud. Looking forward to the presentation and celebration. "

Journal Entry Participant:

"A girl of seven spent a long time deciding where she would place her mosaic piece - a flower that was carefully selected. She will be looking for it when the piece is shown.

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"Some people were hesitant, there was a man with a disability whose body language was as awkward about participating as the medical students'. But once they began, they didn't want to leave and stayed half an hour."

The mosaics all came together. What a day. We hope the "fix and grout" works. It's the first time I've used this product and I'm not sure how well it will work in this type of installation. Deborah says she has used it before, so I trust her…. Tomorrow we will test the mosaics to see how well all is stuck.

By the end of the day, we had over 300 participants :) Awesome!

In the workshop the people rolled in all afternoon, unfortunately not everyone was able to have guests, as we were only able to give two days notice. The amount of people was fine, as the hospital's people just kept coming......

We had participants invite their friends, and spouses, children and grandchildren, parents and siblings. It really has started getting out into the community of Tallaght.

Community Unity feels great.

These mosaics might have been a little too large, but we managed to get them done. Perhaps for the next such workshop we will work on smaller pieces to allow for less pressure.!!!

Now for the grouting and final works for documentation and Celebration.
Two days left..
Here we go..