Night to Day, Here and Away © Ellen Driscoll 2014, 50’ x 3′ mosaic and 2 twenty-foot tall mosaic structures situated on woven mosaic “carpets”, Sarasota National Cemetery, Sarasota FL
Funded by the Patterson Foundation for the Veteran’s Administration
Photo Credit : © Craig Collins
www.ellendriscoll.net/project/night-to-day-here-and-away/
The 50’ x 3′ mosaic on the front of the stage depicts a fictional landscape of Earth, Air, and Water in which all five branches of the military service carry out their work.
The landscape goes from night to day to night over the span of the 50’ length.
Vast differences of time and geography are a part of many military family’s lives. A child might be waking up and going to school in one part of the United States with a parent serving in the military who will be watching night fall at the same time in another part of the world.
The map legend in the lower left of the design reads “Dark of night……..break of day” and “Home……far from home”
A horizon line of military ribbons that are awarded to all branches of the service runs the length of the mosaic.
Throughout the design there are blue stars for those who are currently serving, gold stars for those in the service who have passed away, and clusters of laurel leaves blown by currents of wind, an ancient symbol of valor, knowledge, and accomplishment.
Two twenty foot tall mosaic structures situated on woven mosaic “carpets” form visual markers at the paths which converge to the left and right of the stage.
The mosaics repeat the main themes of the stage design with laurel wreaths, the horizon of service ribbons, and the fictional landscape of Earth, Air, and Water. blue and gold stars, and arrows depicting currents of wind complete this design which is dark blue at the ground plane, becomes light in the middle, and is midnight blue at the top point of the spire.
In an environment where people are coming together to celebrate, commemorate, and mourn, “Night to Day, Here and Away” combines saturated color, the movement and scale of the human body transmitted by the painstaking craft of hand-set mosaic, and a poetic image of a landscape in which everyone is invited to find tribute and honor to those serving in the military.
