Mosaic built from dishes broken in Selma’s tornado nears completion

Not long after the tornado left much of Selma damaged or destroyed, artist Jo Taylor had the idea to make a mosaic from broken pieces of china and ceramic recovered during cleanup.  

That mosaic is nearing completion.  

It depicts the Edmund Pettus Bridge and buildings dark and distorted on one side, but as you move across the panel, colors lighten, and the bridge is seen standing strong. The working title of the piece is Bent but not Broken. 

Taylor’s idea was to collect bits of broken dishes, cups, statues – any broken china or ceramics – and put these pieces together to make something new and beautiful. The piece was meant to promote healing and to show how Selma may be damaged but is not destroyed.  

The response has been overwhelming, according to Taylor. Many people have donated pieces to use in the mosaic, and she is overwhelmed by the number and cross section of community members that worked on the piece.   

People from all over Selma and beyond have come to Gallery 905 to help work on the mosaic. “I had people from Montgomery and Camden come work on it,” Taylor said. “Linda Munzo, the mosaic artist that helped, and her husband are from Cuba, Alabama.”  

Most of the people who have worked on the mosaic have been from Selma. And it has been an amazing cross section of rich and poor, those who lost nothing, those who lost a little and some who lost everything, like the Bowline family.   

Carl Bowline, his wife Julie and their sons Whit and Walt all pitched in to help create the mosaic, and in doing so began to process the wide range of emotions felt after such a devastating loss.  

“You’re angry, and you’re sad. You have a bunch of emotions circling around,” Carl Bowline said. “There’s a lot of anxiety associated with it. But I think this was very healing for the family to be able to do this.”  

He added that it was good for the whole community “to take these broken pieces that often meant so much, and repurpose them for a beautiful mosaic that will be a reminder of how the city of Selma and its neighbors came together to overcome this terrible tragedy.”  

The project has taken on a life of its own, according to Taylor. Soon after she put out the call for broken pieces in early May, pieces began pouring in. News organizations from Montgomery came to Selma to do news stories on the mosaic. And the Weather Channel “took it national” with a piece on the work and how it came to be.  

All of the broken pieces have been attached to create the image. Taylor said all that is left for the main panel is the grout that goes between the pieces.  

So many broken pieces were donated that there are plenty to make more mosaic panels to surround the main mosaic. Taylor is inviting the community to come make their own personal mosaic to be displayed with the main panel. “These panels could tell the personal stories of those of us affected by the tornado,” Taylor said. “There are so many things that we could do. You can design it, or I can help design it.” 

Along with the mosaics, Taylor will soon begin collecting and recording the stories in print and audio form for everyone to read or hear while viewing the mosaics.  

No date has been set for the completion or for where the mosaics will be displayed, but that is all in the works. But when it is displayed, for years to come, everyone who worked on it and donated pieces can come put their finger on a piece of china that may have been an important heirloom but is now something totally new and say, “That is a part of me and my family that is now a part of something new and special.”