The other day while hand delivering tax returns, my last stop was City Hall at the tax office for the City of Dayton. This mural was in the lobby and it has one heck of a story behind it. It's a story of loss and a story of hope.
A little over three years ago, an angry young man went on a shooting spree in the Oregon District in Dayton, Ohio. This horrible incident rocked the city and its surrounding communities.
There were so many responses to this and they came in the forms of vigils, businesses raising money for the families of the victims, benefit concerts, a releasing of doves, and artists creating pieces to express grief and hope and to bring the community together.
This piece is in Dayton's City Hall lobby.
Jes McMillan, a mosaic artist, was inspired by the release of doves at a vigil following the Aug. 4, 2019, mass shooting.
She and her team designed the mural, “a memorial of loss but also of the community coming together,” so the public could take part in its creation.
Upturned hands at the bottom of the mosaic signify the release of the nine doves, each dove representing a person killed. More than 300 people placed one and two-inch porcelain pieces in the sky surrounding the doves. Many wrote messages, prayers and hopes on the individual tiles. Among the sentiments on the tiles are “Dayton Loves You,” “Be Kind To Each Other,” and “God’s Angels.”
This was art as a therapeutic first response to tragedy. Art to heal, art to remind, art to bring hope.
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