Tiles painted by community to become large memorial mosaic
By ELENA GRIMM
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egrimm@daily-chronicle.com
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| (From left) Students Chris Werve, Alessandra Bonasera, and Theresa Theisen paint tiles for a Memorial Mosaic at the Regency Room at NIU on Saturday. The mosaic is to be placed in the library. (Chris Padgett – Shaw Newspaper) |
DeKALB – A Huskie dog, red ribbon pinned to his chest, gazes up at the night sky. Five bright stars shine against the black canvas, and a hill and the Holmes Student Center melt into the quiet backdrop.
Seth Endres, a 24-year-old art major at Northern Illinois University, said he chose these symbols for a large, tiled mosaic because they each relay a specific memory from Feb. 14, 2008.
He was asked by the Fine Arts Committee of the NIU Campus Activities Board to design a mosaic that evokes the quote, “It matters not how long a star shines; what is remembered is the brightness of its light.”
A member of Pi Kappa Alpha, Endres was a fraternity brother to Daniel Parmenter, one of five students killed one year ago in an auditorium classroom by a gunman who also injured 21 others before shooting himself.
“Me and all my [fraternity] brothers went over to pay our respects at that hill,” Endres said, referring to a grassy spot by the MLK Commons that turned into a memorial site. “I hope [the mosaic] will kind of bring peace to people that it brought to me.”
That is exactly what organizers had in mind when they invited the public to paint the 693 tiles of the mosaic Saturday afternoon.
“We wanted something on that day that was somewhat fun and relaxing and allowed people to come together,” said Jessica Moquin, associate vice president of the Fine Arts Committee. “I was pretty sure I would feel somewhat helpless.”
Engaged couple Cheryl Jones and Mark Sweeney spent a few minutes Saturday painting tiles black and white – part of the Huskie’s coat.
Jones, 24, graduated from NIU in textile apparel and merchandising and now lives in Arlington Heights while Sweeney, 23, finishes school.
“I used to be in art in high school. I’ve always enjoyed it, found it relaxing,” she said.
It hasn’t been decided where the finished 11-by-17-foot artwork will end up, but it will be somewhere on the university’s DeKalb campus, said Angie Dreessen, who heads Student Involvement and Leadership Development. She said organizers hope to have it displayed by this fall.
