John and Sharon Svenson's recently completed mosaic for the Iditarod Elementary School in Wasilla will hang out in Haines longer than expected since travel restrictions and social distancing mandates went into effect last month.

The Svensons created the mural, which consists of thousands of colored glass pieces depicting two mushers and their dog teams with a Denali backdrop, for the state's "One Percent for Art Program."

The program dedicates one percent of public building construction or remodel costs to art. This is the eleventh project the Svensons have created for the program. The mural would have been placed in an addition of the Wasilla school.

"We should have been greeting the kids this morning and watching their reaction," John Svenson said Monday. "Today would have been the day. We would have (driven) up last weekend and assembled it."

The artists began sketching the design last fall and started laying glass around Christmas. They ordered 600 pounds of sheet glass from a manufacturer in Portland, Oregon. Each piece is cut on a bandsaw.

John Svenson

The mural is 10 feet long and divided into three sections. The glass pieces are bonded to a three-quarter inch wood base. The dog team and the dogsledder are made of ground sifted glass that was fired in the kiln at 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit.

"We put powdered glass on and sift on the glass," John Svenson said. "It melts all that powdered glass onto the main piece. It makes everything slick. It's like painting on glass."

The mural will hang 14 feet above the school's commons. The Svensons will load the sections in their van and transport it to the school when the COVID-19 health mandates are scaled back.

The Svensons also have artworks in public buildings across the state including Juneau, Valdez and Palmer.