Kathleen Crocetti is a Santa Cruz County-based public artist, community organizer, and educator. Her practice moves between the monumental and the intimate: large-scale community-fabricated mosaics that transform public space, and a studio practice in tile portraiture, mosaic, and encaustic that is quiet, permanent, and urgent.
Her most recent public work, Watsonville Brillante (2024), is a 12,500-square-foot community-fabricated mosaic in downtown Watsonville — the largest community mosaic project in California history. It received Best in Show from both the Society of American Mosaic Artists and the Contemporary Mosaic Art international exhibitions, and earned the City of Watsonville the 2025 Helen Putnam Award for Excellence from the League of California Cities.
Her current studio series, Portraits of the State of the US, draws in permanent pen on the unglazed backs of decorative tiles — the faces of US citizens killed by agents of the state. The work is a meditation on grief, permanence, and the imperative not to move on.
In 2028, Crocetti will co-host the Contemporary Mosaic Art 2 (CMA2) national conference in Santa Cruz, California.