Linda Wallen Studios

A visit to Barcelona, Spain, in 1995 sparked a passion for mosaics. Linda started with her own house at 1208 Yetta in Pittsburgh, using mostly a picassiette technique. Picassiette simply means breaking ceramic items (tiles, plates, etc.) and gluing the pieces onto a support. She worked on the cement block base of the house using thinset cement as a glue. As the mural progressed neighbors became interested and dropped of items to be included: grandma's broken china, tiles from the Fort Pitt tunnels, leftover marble. Materials began arriving in the mail, blue glass chunks from West Virginia, a ceramic angel from Georgia, purple stones from Massachusetts, a broken malachite statue from Australia, pieces of Quimper plates from France, all from strangers who had heard of the project through the proverbial grapevine.

The house next door was purchased and the mosaic moved onto the front of 1212 Yetta. Glass tiles became more common on this wall, Italian glass tiles and hand-cut glass tesserae. Mosaics moved inside as well, into the bathroom and the halls. Requests came in from neighbors for murals. At this point Linda's daughter, Casey Droege, was working as a teaching artist at the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild in Pittsburgh and got her high school students involved in three mosaic mural projects on Yetta Avenue. There are currently 7 mosaics in the neighborhood.