Mirror Mosaic Remake

by

Arts

It’s a blazing hot summer afternoon, and Owensboro artist and entrepreneur Gary Bielefeld is staring at the Ohio River and thinking about sea monsters.

“Can’t you just see a giant octopus reaching up the side of the bridge?” Bielefeld asks, looking almost dewy-eyed at the prospect. It’s probably not the first thought most Owensboroans have when considering ways to improve the city’s venerable Glover-Cary Bridge.

One real giant in Bielefeld’s life hangs not by tentacled suckers but with industrial-grade glue, and it’s made of thousands of shards of mirror. It’s Bielefeld’s iconic Kentucky mirror mosaic mural, one of Owensboro’s most enduring sights, which has been viewed by thousands who have crossed the bridge since the last original shard was placed in November 1983, completing the epic 110- by 42-foot work of art.

To Bielefeld’s knowledge, it’s the largest mirror mosaic in the world. And that’s a lot of mirror, especially on a sunny day. “The minute the sun comes over, when you look down on the ground, you get it right back in your face. Then, the whole thing starts to heat up. So it’s only a few seconds before your bald spot goes,” he quips.

Four decades ago, Gary Bielefeld may not have had a bald spot to be concerned about when he and a clutch of his Kentucky Wesleyan College student volunteers installed the original Kentucky mirror mosaic over a period of about four months.

Little did he know that he’d be back up on that wall again, thanks to a fluke of science that was causing problems. “It was the silver on the back of the mirrors,” he says. “The adhesive had a reaction after 40 years, and the silver was letting go. So, clear glass was starting to drop off.”

Forty years, though. That’s pretty good, right?

“On a painted mural outside, you’re lucky to get 10 [years]. This one’s good for 50. And if there’s a problem, they can come and dig me up and scatter my ashes in the parking lot,” he says with a laugh.

During the mural’s refurbishment, the COVID-19 pandemic cost him the volunteer labor he had enjoyed the first time he worked on it. “I ended up doing it all myself—every bit of it,” Bielefeld says. “The only thing I haven’t done is bring the pallets of glass in.”

In the original iteration, the glass was scrap donated by Kentucky Mirror & Plate Glass in Louisville. In the ensuing years, that business expanded to include an Owensboro branch, so there’s enough scrap in town, and the company also supplies its own custom adhesive. The city of Owensboro and Daviess County provided additional financial assistance for the project, and individual citizens and “friends of the arts” chipped in, Bielefeld said.

Community volunteer and Owensboro media personality Kirk Kirkpatrick has long been a fan of Bielefeld’s work. “Gary has an incredible imagination and the talent,” Kirkpatrick says. “The original mirror project is a great example but was only one of many of the huge pieces of art he’s created over the years in Owensboro.”

Bielefeld has a knack for making “Big Stuff,” the one-time business name for what also has been called Bielefeld Creative Services. His artwork is not all mosaics—though piecing together and resourcing wacky proposals could be seen as its own kind of mosaic. One of his specialties is to give local businesses iconic “big stuff” to promote their brands.

Bielefeld has created a giant utility tool belt for a lumber retailer and a shopping bag for a local grocery. “It was probably 30 feet tall and was as big of a Frederica Street tourist attraction as our largest sassafras tree,” Kirkpatrick recalls of the shopping bag. “I don’t think any of us realize the amount of time, planning and work that goes into creating a piece of art like Gary’s. We all owe him our gratitude and appreciation for his investment in our community, both artistically and as a person. And I can’t wait to find out his next project!”

His next project seems to be on Bielefeld’s mind, too. As he gazes down from the Frantz Building Services lot that is home to the Kentucky mirror mosaic, he gets a faraway look. “See those three silos down there?” he asks, eyeing the concrete detritus that is common for any Kentucky river town. “I want to paint them like medieval towers and do all the fairy tales involving towers—like Rapunzel’s hair coming all the way down. And the French guy going, ‘I spit in your general direction … and your father smells of elderberries.’ ” Bielefeld’s version of Monty Python references notwithstanding, his decades of work in Owensboro are no joke.

“He’s a guy who just seems like the gears are always turning,” local builder Scott Jagoe notes. “He’s probably already thinking about something else while he’s doing the mural. I think he’s just working to make things better. It’s not just for himself but also for people around him.” And if some of those people have businesses they want to promote, well, he probably has “big stuff” for them, too.

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Years ago, after the debut of the Kentucky mirror mosaic on the giant wall of what was then Progress Printing, Bielefeld got a call from competitor Hardin-Graybill Printers. “They said, ‘We’d like you to do for us what you did for them,’ and I said, ‘What? Mirrors?’ and they said, ‘No, we want something to make our building stand out,’ ” Bielefeld recalls. “And so we turned the whole building into a printing press. We had the wind turbines on it. And we had hog feeders coming off the front, which look like big ink rollers. And the awning looked like it was coming out from between the rollers.”

Tool belts, grocery bags, printing presses—Bielefeld has been having fun with his big stuff for decades, and Owensboro has benefited from his madcap exploits.

Mark Calitri of Visit Owensboro sees Bielefeld’s work as a great boon to the city. “Changing a town into a destination does not happen overnight. Public art, like the mosaic mirror, can be a key factor in establishing a unique and culturally active place,” Calitri says. “Gary’s true greatness and significance are in his ability to envision a work of art and conceive concepts and shapes at a level few can. I’ve been so impressed with his work ethic and determination.

“Gary has experienced every Kentucky weather season—heat, high winds, cold temperatures and rain. He even persevered through a global pandemic. Since he’s doing almost 100 percent of the work alone up in the bucket with no one around, I’ve joked that Dr. [Anthony] Fauci would be proud of his social distancing!”

Terry Woodward, CEO and founder of Owensboro’s WaxWorks VideoWorks, says, “Gary is a very talented artist, and [the mirror mosaic] has been his showpiece. Everyone in Owensboro fell in love with it immediately, and I guess it had a larger impact that I would ever have imagined. It’s such an Owensboro thing, and we’re proud to be part of our great state of Kentucky.”

One person who is outsize proud is Gary’s life partner/co-conspirator/helper/cheerleader, Janet Woodall Corum. “When I first saw his mirror mural, it brought tears to my eyes,” she recalls. “To see this project being reimagined and recreated by one man after 40-plus years was just overwhelming to me. I have seen him come in with glass in his arms, hands and legs, and blood running down from a cut. He has had to go to the emergency room for gashes from the glass and has had near frostbite from the cold as well as sunburn and near heatstroke from the heat. He cuts each and every piece of glass that he places on the wall. I wish there had been a way to count them all.”

For all of its thousands of shards, the Kentucky mirror mosaic mural reflects well on both Kentucky and Owensboro.