Chiang Mai Thailand

We designed this lotus blossom ceramic mosaic mural as a symbol for emotional and personal

growth. Created on site as a community project in a Psychiatric Hospital in Chiang Mai, we worked hand in hand with patients and nurses for one month on this cross-cultural mosaic.

Between January and March, 2016, American community artist and teacher Joshua Winer traveled to Chiang Mai, Thailand, to do overseas what he's been doing for 20 years in the US- to bring communities together to make ‎art in public spaces that builds new friendships and creates images that helps to communicate a community’s culture, values and aspirations.

At Suan Prung Hospital, a public psychiatric hospital where Thais and indigent Americans receive treatment, Joshua created a symbolic mosaic mural of a lotus blossom growing from darkness and blossoming in sunlight that expresses hope and transcendence.

To the right and left of the central mosaic, Joshua Winer created two ceramic legends, one in Thai and one in English, that express the meaning of the cross-cultural symbol of the lotus blossom. “Just like the lotus, we too have the ability to rise from the mud, bloom out of the darkness and radiate into the world”

Over the course of 6 weeks, 300 volunteers worked together to create this mosaic. Thai, Americans, patients, children, adults, nurses and the staff of the US Embassy cut tiles, used cement, laughed and bonded.