Vroman's Mosaic

Today's mosaic ornaments the back entrance of Vromans Bookstore in Pasadena. The store--a veritable institution--has been around since 1894, according to their history site. They started out at a different address and are still family-owned today, and the largest independent bookstore in SoCal.

Vroman's recently bought Book Soup, I hear. The story is on LA Observed and other places--the LA Observed piece has a thoughtful comparison of the two bookstores.

Clicking on the pictures should bring up a larger image, so please do so. There are exquisite butterflies and other wonders to be seen here.

On Flicker, I found a stream of detailed photos of this same mosiac here. There really is a ton of loveliness to be seen when you look close.

Took me awhile to find the artist, and sad to report, what I found was an obituary. Bill Crite passed two years ago, but you can see a picture of him and read about his work at the Mosaic Art and Glass Art blog, here, or by scrolling to page 13 in this pdf version of The Pasadena San Gabriel Valley Journal News. My impression from reading that is that most of his work is in private homes or locations (the High-Roller Suite at the Alladin in Las Vegas is mentioned). So the Vroman's mosaic may be the only acquaintance most of us can have with Bill Crite.