River of Peace Tiles Available

River of Peace Tiles, $18, Ghost Ranch Gift Shop

The River of Peace Mural is a 35 foot ceramic tile mural on the East outside wall of the Lower Pavilion at Ghost Ranch, facing the Peace Garden. The mural shape echoes the Fibonacci curves contained in the layout of the Peace Garden. Clay slips in natural hues on the tiles relate to the colors of the rocks, sky and earth at Ghost Ranch. Permanently fired into the surface, a visual river of spiritual symbols from around the world is integrated into a mosaic of hand-written poems, prayers, intentions, quotes and original writings.

Because of widespread interest in the mural and the participation of the community, Barbara Campbell and Judy Nelson-Moore decided to create 6” tiles using the methods and imagery from the River of Peace Mural. This is a way for people to have a “piece of the Peace Mural” to take home. These tiles are all unique and made by hand. They provide a lovely remembrance of the mural and Ghost Ranch.

All profits benefit the ceramic studio in Pot Hollow at Ghost Ranch. This studio has been providing a place for clay exploration and learning for over 45 years. Your purchase of this tile supports the Ghost Ranch workshops as well as clay workshops and activities of the New Mexico Potters and Clay Artists in Pot Hollow.

Tiles are $18 and are available in the gift shop at the Ghost Ranch Welcome Center.

Barbara Campbell and Dean Schroeder installung the Mural

River of Peace Mural Installed

Here are some pictures of the final installation of the River of Peace mural in the Peace Garden at Ghost Ranch.  Present for the installation were Barbara Campbell, Judy Nelson-Moore, Dean Schroeder and Tomas Wolff, all members of the NMPCA.  Also assisting were Tom Nichols, original designer of the Peace Garden, and his wife Edie.

Installing the Peace Mural

Barbara Campbell, Tomas Wolff, Dean Schroeder, and myself, Judy Nelson-Moore are at Ghost Ranch through Sunday installing the Peace Mural on the wall.  It is exciting to have this project started last year and contributed to by so many people come to fruition.  Yesterday, they were also filming a movie at the ranch…total chaos!

Tom Nichols and his wife, Edie, are also here to help.  Tom is the original designer of the Peace Garden.

I’ll post pictures soon, but I wanted to tell of two terms I coined during yesterday’s work:  Squizzy and “Think like a shrink”.  Squizzy is what you do to adjust the placement of the tiles.  Sort of a squeeze with an attitude…wiggle, twist…you get the idea.  Think like a shrink refers to the fact that the clay tiles shrink during the drying and firing process, which all clay people know.  When you have many different shaped tiles over 26-30 feet, the way in which they shrink is not regular and behaved, like it would be if the tiles were all the same size and shape.  So, it takes a little thinking about how the shrinking affects the shape of the mural to figure out how to place the tiles…and a lot of squizzying!  More to follow.