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Local artist gets help depicting town landmarks
The newest piece of public art in Lansdale is taking shape, one shard or sliver or shape at a time.
“It’s completely volunteer-based, and I’ve gotten all the donations I could possibly get for this,” said local artist Roxanne Slemmer, as she added a few more pieces to her decorative mosaic mural.
Located on the 100 block of East Main Street, just across from the Suds laundromat at the corner of Main and Ridge, Slemmer teaches art classes in The Art Studio inside the decorated walls, with free mosaic lessons every Monday night. Her goal is to have the outside mural done by next spring, and said this week the mural has taken about six years of planning, design work and placing the shapes, with another tentatively on the drawing board for another Main Street business.
“It only moves forward when people show up. It’s a historical timeline of Lansdale: the Boys and Girls Club started out doing the footprints, and it was supposed to go train to train, but there were so many footprints it wound up going around the perimeter of the building,” she said.
Local artist Roxanne Slemmer places a piece of blue sky in her mosaic mural at Main and Ridge Streets in Lansdale on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024.As she spoke, Slemmer sized up, rotated, then placed pieces of blue sky near the top side of the mural, which features plenty of sights recognizable to those who know the town.
Familiar sights
On the Main Street side of the mural, you’ll spot the Lansdale Historical Society’s Jenkins Homestead since they helped pick the highlights — “They were the first people I went to: I said ‘I’m doing a historical timeline, what do I need?” — while the side facing Ridge features a steam locomotive, the borough’s freight station, the Memorial Park gazebo, and the Silk Factory apartments near Valley Forge Road.
Flowers and wildlife fill in the spaces between the landmarks, and on the far northern side you’ll spot the town’s Kugel Ball, the Stony Creek park fountain, the water tower looming over Third Street, and a sleek silver SEPTA train.
“We do everything inside the building, and then we bring it out. Right now, we’re just doing all the fill-in work; the train (took) three months, maybe, and we brought it out in three pieces and put it up on the wall,” she said.
Local artist Roxanne Slemmer poses with mosaic outlines of students inside ‘The Art Studio: Lansdale’ at Main and Ridge Streets in Lansdale on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024.Community effort
Slemmer has been posting updates on “The Art Studio: Lansdale” Facebook page when she goes out to work; follow that Facebook page for more updates on when she’ll be working, and when and how you can help. As each piece is placed, the polymer-based additives help attach it to the wall, and grout gets filled in as areas are finalized.
“Kids from seven years old, on up, have been working on this — over 200 people. How many hours? We used to keep track,” she said, before losing count — “whenever I get a chance, I’m out here. Mostly, I hear ‘Oh, I wish I would’ve known about this,'” she said.
“Now that the weather’s so nice and warm, and cool nights, I can get a lot done. I just need bodies to help.”
Recent work on the town’s East Main Street streetscape upgrade delayed her progress slightly, but the mural was highlighted during the art-themed Founders Day festivities in August.
‘So many stories’
There’s plenty left to do, mostly sky: “Wherever you see white wall, there has to be more,” she said. The glass used for the mosaic is stained glass from an artist, and inside the studio itself is a sneak preview of her next project: over a dozen life-size teens outlined in silhouette, in various poses: hand on hip, arms raised like a cheerleader, and more in the works.
“This boy is doing a handstand. Imagine 16 of these, running down” the side of a building, Slemmer said. “They came in, and we traced them and took their picture, and then we made them.”
Local artist Roxanne Slemmer pets her rescue pup Gracie, who is depicted near the town’s Kugel Ball in the mosaic mural at Main and Ridge Streets in Lansdale on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2024.Look close enough, and you may even recognize wildlife: an albino deer spotted in Whites Road Park is also hidden in the mural, as is Slemmer’s rescue pup Gracie, fish in the Stony Creek pond, and more — each with a story that ties to the town.
“Somebody walked in one day and said, ‘I need to work on the old train.’ I said, you do? And she said, ‘Yeah, my grandfather was the conductor.’ That was so cool, and we have so many stories like that.”
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