Bringing Sonia Romero’s Mural ‘Lady Artesia’ to Life

Los Angeles artist Sonia Romero’s mural “Lady Artesia” pays tribute to the residents, their cultures, the history, the industries and community life of the City of Artesia in Southern California. Romero commissioned California Pottery and Tile Works to produce tiles for the mural that graces the entrance to the Artesia Public Library.

Sonia Romero’s ‘Lady Artesia’ tile mural at Artesia Public Library.

“I chose CalPot because they have a great portfolio of tile murals and are local to Los Angeles,” Romero said. “I created the imagery for my mural in my papercut-and-linocut style (see photo 1). I scanned the imagery and converted them to Illustrator files. These files were transferred to silkscreens and printed in glaze, and the negative space was filled in with Calpot’s ‘bopping’ technique.”

Photo 1: Sonia Romero’s linocut scrolls that silkscreened, transferred to tile and glazed.

The “bopping” technique she mentions is when CalPot artists hand-glaze each color onto a tile.

This project was unique because CalPot used a combination of silk-screening and hand-application to achieve the many shades of color Romero sought.

In the CalPot studio.

The tiles recall blue-and-white Portuguese and Spanish Azulejo tile, Mexican Talavera tile, and Chinese and Middle Eastern porcelain wares. The composition features a central figure, Lady Artesia, representing Artesian well water (photo 2), the primary natural resource for Artesia’s early farming and dairy settlers, surrounded by vignettes about Artesia’s history, diverse communities, cultural activities, industries and more.