Mirror Mosaic's Night Out

It was perhaps inevitable that a mermaid would finagle a way into one of Virginia's finest art museums - the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk. Mirror Mosaic, by Ryan Brinkley, was one of the first mermaids. She attended the Mermaids on Parade opening reception at the Freemason Visitor Center and she rode in the first (and last) Mermaids on Parade. Then, she settled in with her sister, Mirror Mosaic 2, at the corner of St. Paul's Boulevard and Main Street. The two spent their days watching a new office tower go up, and the stream of people taking lunch or cigarette break at one of the tables that shared their plaza. Until the night she was invited to the Chrysler.

Made of nearly a dozen shattered full-length mirrors, Mirror Mosaic was the perfect choice for a museum known worldwide for its glass collection. Founded in 1933, the Chrysler Museum of Art ranks among the top 20 museums in the country. When the evening was over, Mirror Mosaic — like Cinderella who returned from the ball in a pumpkin carriage — returned to her pole on the bed of a pickup truck. Mirror Mosaic is sponsored by First Virginia Bank of Hampton Roads.