The River of Life Mosaic by Gary Drostle ©2010

15m x 4m floor mosaic for the entrance hall of the new University of Iowa Campus for Recreation and Wellness Center, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.

One of the things that made a big impression with me during my trip to Iowa City was the relationship with the river. In thinking about the concept of Wellbeing it struck me that the idea of the river and the vision of wellbeing as a path through our lives, rather than just a state of being at a single moment in time, came together in the River of Life. This seems also to connect well with the aquatic focus of the CRWC centre.
The River symbolising life is an ancient image connecting our most ancient cultures. The mouth of the river symbolising a gateway and the journey to it’s source, the path to enlightenment. The river is the bringer of life and purification.
Beginning at the top of the mosaic the Fetal spiral represents the beginning of life, the spring. The River is represented as long strands of flow, life lines, the paths of our lives, each taking a slightly different course, meandering through life, yet all on the same inevitable path to death. The meander pattern of the river is much like that of the Iowa River itself, the plan of which formed the initial rough designs. I imagine the ground the river flows over as the rich pattern of human existence, culture and knowledge. The lighter background area in the centre representing the ideal path of wellbeing, a life in balance with itself, it’s community and it’s environment. On either side are darker zones, that part of all our lives where things don’t go so well, out of balance. In some parts the river breaks out completely, to me this portrays the extremes of life whether that is through illness, poverty, social exclusion, emotional and environmental deprivation. As the river of life lines twists and turns some lines break away as some lives end before their time.