Signal Hill Market Mosaics--Updated

Today's mosaics are on the Fresh & Easy store in Signal Hill on Cherry. The series of three pictures is titled "Full Circle."

I wish I could name the mosaicist, but I can only say I'll post the information if I ever lay hands on it. Calls are into Signal Hill and Fresh & Easy Corporate--but since F& E just recalled some packaged spinach, the PR department has been a bit too busy to answer my calls...

UPDATE: The city of Signal Hill tells me the artist is Stephen Elicker, a local artist who works in glass and tile. In fact, he is a glass blower, but he terms himself a "Visual Artist" and works in several mediums. You can read more about hm at his Facebook page.

Long before the store was built, the mosaics were planned. An April 2009 article in the Signal Tribune says the planned market would have a mosaic-tile art wall. That article also states that Signal Hill Petroleum was the developer of the property, which sits atop a hill crest on Cherry.
Signal Hill's Landscape Consultant, John Chicchetti, brought Elicker in for the project.

I've gone through a lot of announcements and even a video about the store opening, and not one mentions or even shows the mosaic.  How sad. The three pictures face Cherry (east), so they are visible to traffic--but the store entrance faces south, so once inside the parking lot they are invisible.

The store opened on Sept. 8, 2010.

Below is  a picture I borrow from Elicer's FB page, showing the mosaic in progress. You might want to check out more of his photos showing the progress of these and other projcets. Some are in small parks, and some (like the beautiful Drake's Dragon) don't give a location.

Elicker helped to establish the The ArtExchange Visual Art Center in Long Beach. He is also responsible for the Rose Park mosaic, which is on my list of mosaics to blog about--a list that is growing daily.

Funny--when I started Mosaic Mondays a couple of years ago, I wondered how many months' worth of mosaics I could find. Now....I think I could continue for twenty years. There are that many examples of public art mosaics in the county. And the city of Long Beach is adding more constantly...yay!