The Chinese Immersion School in San Francisco commissioned Gina to collaborate with the Class of 2014 to create a mosaic mural for the retaining wall in the upper play yard. Inspiration for the design came from the school mascot.

4 feet tall and roughly 45 feet wide, this wall is part mosaic, part painted mural. The thought is that the Phoenix is the focal point with the feather colors spreading out along the wall in an organic painted design emulating the movement of the feathers.

Gina created circular cut-outs in the central mosaic to allow the paint to peak through and to spread the mosaic along the wall by attaching mosaic rounds in various locations along the wall.
 

To give the mural an extra touch, the kids of the sponsoring Class of 2014 signed the Phoenix feathers by choosing one word that had special meaning to them. They then wrote it in English and in Chinese. Some also included their Chinese names as signatures.

Notice the shadows drifting down the wall. Another way to had play and movement to the mural.

Gina returned the following year to collaborate with the Class of 2015 on another painted mural and mosaic installation. The heart and yin yang mosaic adorns a wall in the lower play yard and is the center of the sun mural painted by the parents.

This class of students also left their mark by signing the circles in the yin yang with their names in Chinese and English.