Melissa Donovan
Shampoos, conditioners and pom poms. One of these does not seem to belong, but they all make up a part of the current inside of the Mosaic Hair Studio and Blowout Bar in Ivanhoe.
The colorful, rainbow-esque pom poms are featured as the main element in local artist Larrie King’s (Mister Larrie) ‘Happy Again’ collection. They tell a story of reconnecting with joyful moments of his youth. A story that now Mosaic customers can enjoy during their hair appointments.
“Those colors come from my childhood. They come from a time when I was very happy and full of life and eagerness to try new things and see the world. Things like bullying, discrimination, poverty and lots of other things that happened in life sort of beat those colors out of me after a while, and life got hard to live,” King said. “Now, as an adult, I look back to those times when I was really happy, and I want to reconnect with that. The pom poms, being soft and colorful puts people at ease and makes them happy.”
‘Happy Again’ was featured at Meredith Sand Design Studios and Gallery in January and moved over to Mosaic Hair Studio and Blowout Bar in Ivanhoe on Feb. 9. This rotation of art from the gallery to the salon is the first of many collaborations between the two businesses, and all started when Michael Van den Abbeel, owner of Mosaic realized he needed an art curator for his salon.
Mosaic has been in business for 22 years, and over that time, Van den Abbeel and his wife have made an effort to feature local artists on their walls. So far, they have included around 75 to 100 artists and want the number to keep growing.
“I’ve always wanted to feature local artists and the work that they do on our walls,” Van den Abbeel said. “I’ve always thought it was much more interesting than just putting up posters or whatnot.”
As the business has continued to grow with locations in Ivanhoe, the Milk District and a third salon opening in the SoDo South and Edgewood area in early 2027, he said it has become more difficult to coordinate and find art to display.
He voiced his concerns about keeping local art on the salon walls to Angie Folks, Executive Director of the Milk District. Folks being attuned to businesses in the area, she was able to find a solution to Van den Abbeel’s problem: a collaboration with Meredith Sand, a Central Florida native, art curator and founder of Meredith Sand Design Studios and Gallery, which is just down the road from Mosaic.
“I felt like they should talk. That they should know each other. If nothing else, the more that we are connected, the stronger that we are as a district,” Folks said. “ So I introduced them, and the rest I hope is good history. Sometimes it’s introductions that just turn into awesome collaborations. I’ve seen that happen several times.”
Sand displays collections from local artists monthly. Once the artists’ residency at her gallery concludes, Sand said she tries to find a new home to display the art. More often than not, she said, artists will shove their pieces into their closets or storage spaces post-show and hope their art will be sold online.
A walk-in to Sand’s gallery from Van den Abbeel opened a dialogue about rotating featured artists’ work from her space into the salon. The collaboration offered a solution for both of them; Sand would be able to bring her resident artists’ work into the salon, offering them a new outlet to display their pieces, and Van den Abbeel would never have to worry about curating art for his own space.
“Rotation is an extension of my gallery, and that’s what’s so amazing,” Sand said. “ It gives [the salon] some character. Saying ‘I went to the salon today and I saw a bunch of cool art, and that made me feel good.’ He’s creating a unique experience with that; I love that. It’s very cool that he’s just hooked up with me, because I can connect so many different artists through him, and he can just really give us the exposure that could take us to another level.”
King’s ‘Happy Again’ collection will be displayed in Mosaic’s Ivanhoe location through March, and then another artist from Sand’s network will take over the space. Van den Abbeel said the goal and hope is for work from Sand’s gallery to be displayed in all Mosaic locations for the foreseeable.
As the first artist to be featured on Mosaic’s walls from this collaboration, King said he sees the importance of locals supporting each other.
“Our local artists are the people who express what we as a population are feeling. They are the ones making the statements of our happiness and our sadness and our tragedy, and they’re the ones who are recording our histories through the artwork that they make. So, it’s really important for them to feel connected to that community, and it’s really important for the community to embrace them,” King said. “I think that the idea of a local business partnering with a local artist, it feels like the right thing to do. I mean, we all have different strengths and different challenges, and when we are working together to showcase those strengths and to showcase our work to our local community, it just makes our voices that much louder.”
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