In 2005 I was awarded the individual artist grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission to create on a mosaic bench with youth attending after school programs, in a community garden, owned by the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House. Work began in the summer of 2006. This grant afforded me exciting opportunities, to work on my first permanent and public artwork, and to work again within a local community, providing access to the process and production of art in their environment. I constructed a concrete sculptural mosaic bench. It was dedicated to the memory of Enola Maxwell, and the theme was the tree of life. Youth at the neighborhood house helped me to make tiles, and the local residents then became involved in the mosaic installation process.

The more I work on community based art projects, the more evidence I see of the positive effects art and environment has on our lives. During the project one of the local residents confided that she had been depressed, her involvement in the project revived her belief in community: An art project provided her with the vehicle through which she was able to participate, making her a productive member of her community. This project also provided an important link between youth at the Neighborhood House and the surrounding residents. The project continues, and has developed into a sculpture garden. Mosaic works are still being created by residents in mosaic fundraising workshops that I hold at the weekends, and volunteers share maintenance of the gardens, and we receive donations of tools and plants from enthusiastic and inspired neighbors all round.