Watsonville Brillante is the 12,500 square foot project that took 5 years to complete. Kathleen started the non-profit organization Community Arts & Empowerment to fund the project and to create the Muzzio Mosaic Arts Center where Kathleen teaches and mentors the youth of the community in the art of mosaics.
Hermanite is the 3rd of four anchor images translated into mosaics from woodblock prints by the artist Juan Fuentes. This section which measures 40’ x 60’ took a year to complete and was installed by Kathleen and a crew from Rinaldi Tile and Marble.
Here is a quote about this image from Juan Fuentes:
The Hermanita image was originally done in 2005 as a linocut. The image was based on a photo I saw in a travel magazine while visiting friends in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I made a quick sketch and later I created the Hermanita print based on that small sketch as a relief print.
Hermanita was done as a tribute to Native women, but when I titled it Hemanita, (little sister) I was thinking of my sisters, even though they are older than me. Hermanita represents beauty and strength. The resilience of native cultures, but as a mosaic she now represents the first peoples of Watsonville, which were the Ohlone and the many indigenous women that come from Mexico to toil in the fields.
