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Mosaics brighten Times Square subway passageway

By Marlene Naanes, amNewYork Staff Writer
More stories | MNaanes@am-ny.com

1:19 PM EDT, May 30, 2008

The MTA unveiled wall mosaics by Artist Jane Dickson's Glass entitled "The Revelers" which includes 70 Life-Size Figures which will line the 42nd Street/Times Square Subway station in Manhattan. (Katya Pronin / May 23, 2008)

Several dozen revelers have taken the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration underground, and for these festive folks, the party will never end.

About 60 colorful mosaics of people blowing party horns and donning party hats are celebrating along the walls of the passageway that connects Times Square station to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The new, permanent MTA Arts for Transit installation will greet live revelers in time for New Years to come.

But artist Jane Dickson hopes that everyday commuters glean a good mood off of her revelers even as they rush to work.

"We all know how serious life is, so you want something that lightens up your day," Dickson said of the mosaics.

Dickson was chosen from about 30 artists who submitted proposals for the project that spans about an avenue block. MTA Arts for Transit has installed almost 200 projects in the past 20 years, some of the most notable includes Roy Lichtenstein¹s Times Square station mural.

The figures begin near the A and C lines and cluster near the No. 7 mezzanine. They also dot the area near the N and the R. Dickson, a Pace University professor and Marlborough Gallery artist, was inspired after 12 years of calling Times Square homeshe enjoyed and endured many New Years there with plenty of party horn honking.

"After awhile they sounded like demented sheep," she said.

The mosaics were designed from pictures from previous New Years and Dickson dressing up relatives and friends as models for the project. The figures are meant to seem animated, especially as straphangers hurry past them.

She hopes that commuters will be come 'friends' or at least familiar with the figures and eventually structure their commute around them.

"I'm hoping that people will remember, 'Oh I turn left at the girl with the orange hat,'" she said.