Napa Valley Chrysler Dealership Increases Curb Appeal with Custom Mosaic

BOSTON, MA – August 2022 – Napa Valley’s Chrysler Dealership’s roadside mural, commissioned by local artist Kristina Young, captures the evolution of the Chrysler brand in an everlasting mosaic nestled upon a 100-foot-long, ten-foot-high concrete wall, delivering a colorful mirror to the adjacent Soscol Avenue.

As the most extensive project she’s ever done, and with a tight turnaround time, Young turned to Artaic to transform her hand-crafted design into a large-scale mural that will maintain its vibrance permanently. 

“A main concern for public art is vandalizing,” said Young. “If it’s a painted mural that gets vandalized, you have to paint over it or start over, but with mosaic, you just wipe it with some paint thinner, and you’re done. If a client has a vision for [an art piece] that will stand the test of time, mosaic is the way to go.”

The mural presents a young female driving a 1950s Chrysler, motoring beside a parade of eight vintage Chrysler vehicles from between the 1920s and 1970s, demonstrating the brand’s almost 100-year history. The design’s direction of movement starts with the ’56 Firedome, signaling that it is headed ‘into the future” while the older models are driving into the left bottom side and into the past. Young cleverly added several locally-inspired details to the piece, including in the background, which features several Belted Holstein cows in front of blue mountain peaks resembling the Mayacamas. Another focal point in the mosaic is the musical notes dancing around the car’s stereo. This addition is a nod to Chrystler’s 1955 edition, which introduced the world’s first transistor car audio. 

“The majority of the installation work was done by Gerry Iuliano of Iuliano Construction with support from Israel Valencia,” noted Kristina. “I did help with the installation process, though not very much as I was busy with other projects. This was one of the amazing things about working with Artaic — I was able to focus on design and project management and subcontract a lot of the labor. It also freed me up to pursue other projects, which is key to my business.”

With Artaic’s design team, Kristina’s vision and artistry was translated into the ancient medium of mosaic, finalized to bring the brand’s history to life through carefully selected tile material and color. The palette for the mosaic intends to bring in joyful pops of color through the car’s vintage paint selections while complimenting the building exterior. White gold tiles were added as a design detail to reflect the chrome elements of the vehicles. 603,750 ½” Vitreous Glass tiles, Artaic’s most versatile tile type which offers an extensive color range and produces vibrant results, make up the mural, telling a piece of the iconic American brand’s history.

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ABOUT ARTAIC

Artaic specializes in the design, fabrication, and assembly of award-winning mosaics, employing cutting-edge robotic technology and innovative design tools. Artaic’s proprietary Tylist™ software enables its in-house design team to create custom mosaics from source imagery of all mediums—whether drawings, photographs, logos, or ideas and concepts. With a wide range of materials, including vitreous glass, sintered glass, stone, and glazed porcelain, Artaic’s team ensures each creation is distinct and tailored to the client’s vision. At the heart of Artaic’s philosophy is the elevation of the tile mosaic to an art form. Whether introducing a distinctive artistic element to a project or translating an artist’s work into a new medium, Artaic fosters a reevaluation of tile as a powerful element of design and art. Artaic also offers a catalog of preconceived design collections—such as Flourish, Splash!, Lasting Rugs, and Verge—that can be customized to fit projects of any scale and made unique by an expansive material and color palette. The Boston-based company’s tailored approach and unique manufacturing process increase design flexibility and artistic expression while decreasing lead time and cost, making it a go-to resource for architects, interior designers, and artists across the globe.