Jason Messinger completes three mural commission for the College of Lake County Community Center in Waukegan, located at 34 N Sheridan Road, Waukegan, Illinois. The $100,000 commission was awarded by the Illinois Capital Development Board Art-in-Architecture Program. The project consists of 102 12" square hand made ceramic tiles with hand painted ceramic glazes, mounted on white maple frame supports, spread across three floors.
The first mural, titled
“Onomatopoeia / Onomatopeya”, depicts thirty-nine exclamatory
words or phrases that are associated with sounds, and interjections that
are similarly voiced.
Half the words are presented in Spanish and half
in English, with a few words carrying the same meaning in each language, speaking directly speaking to the
diverse student body. It is mounted in the lobby to the floor containing the school’s library, and
the tutoring center.
The mural, while primarily a visual experience, also attempts to
activate the viewers' sense of hearing, by evoking the memory of sounds.
“Sun Kissed” consists of thirty concentric circles, a symbol in global crafts, and in ancient, modern, and contemporary art. In many traditions, circles communicate unity, community, knowledge, healing, growth, wholeness, harmony and connection.
The diagonal shape also obliquely references ‘Ojos de Dios’ or ‘God’s Eye’, a colorful symbol of protection, commonly found in Mexican, Peruvian, and Latin American communities among both Indigenous and Catholic peoples.
The mural, while primarily a visual experience, also reminds the viewer of the physical sense of heat, by triggering memories of the sun’s warmth.
Flowers
are part of humanity’s collective medical heritage, as botanicals were
the original primary components of medicine. Bouquets of flowers are
also a traditional gift for people in need of healing. Meant to present a
joyful symbolic representation of the
natural world, which is fundamental to our health and shared
well-being.
This mural, while primarily a visual experience, also
references the sense of smell, by tickling the mind with a memory of
floral scents.
This is the third major public art project for the artist, who also has five murals at the three station houses for the Chicago Transit Authority Blue Line Illinois Medical District stop, and two murals at the Chicago Public Library Austin Irving Branch. The artist's work is also in numerous hotel, hospital and corporate settings in the United States, Europe and China, as well as in private collections across the globe.
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