| Here I Grew Up | |
| Other Title 1: | The Statesmen |
| Artist: | Garo Z. Antreasian |
| Type: | Mosaic |
| Height Imperial: | 300 |
| Length Imperial: | 840 |
| Imperial Unit: | in |
| Metric Unit: | cm |
| City: | Indianapolis |
| Museum: | Indiana Government Center North |
| Coordinates: | 39.767°N -86.162°W |
| Owner: | State of Indiana |
Here I Grew Up, is a public artwork by American artist Garo Z. Antreasian, located on the lower level of the Indiana Government Center North building, which is near Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. This mosaic depicting five stages of Abraham Lincoln's life in Indiana between the ages of 7 and 21 can be found on the west side of the building by the escalators leading down to the tunnel to Indiana Government Center South. The mosaic is located between the cafeteria's entrance and an automated teller machine.
Here I Grew Up is a mosaic mural on a travertine marble wall that measures 70 ft. in length and 25 ft. in height.[1] It contains over 300,000 hand-cut pieces of Bysantine Smalti (Glass tiles) in 87 different hues. These tiles measure approximately 3/8" x 5/8" x 1/9" thick and were imported from Murano, Italy. The design for the mural was chosen as a winning entry for an art competition held in December 1959, by the Indiana State Office Building Commission. Antreasian's mural entry, along with Young Abe Lincoln (sculpture) by David Rubins, was selected by a jury to commemorate Abraham Lincoln's formative years in Indiana. Antreasian's full-scale color drawings of the Abraham Lincoln figures took six months to complete.
The fabrication of the mural was completed by Herron School of Art graduate Ralph Peck and his assistant, Mrs. Charles Pitts.[2] Before Peck and his assistant began their work, the marble wall in the Indiana Government Center North was sandblasted to proper depth by using a full-size sketch of the mural as a guide. Peck and his assistant then affixed the glass tiles to the reverse side of Antreasian's sketches that were printed on a large roll of paper. The pair then cut out each Lincoln section, called a cartoon, and coded the square and rectangle pieces for coloring and positioning. It took one year to set the pieces in mortar.
Before the mosaic was unveiled to the public, lettering and brass edging for the mosaic figures were added to the wall. The title of the piece, "Here I Grew Up", is located right of center in gold, cursive letters with a height of 14.6 inches. "Here I Grew Up" is a quotation from Abraham Lincoln regarding his time spent in Indiana. Below the title, the following commemoration appear in brass letters that measure 3.1 inches in height: "Abraham Lincoln, our finest contribution to civilization shaped on the soil of Indiana from age 7 to 21". Original plans for the commemoration indicated a difference in Lincoln's age: "Abraham Lincoln, Our Finest Contribution to Civilization, Shaped on the Soil of Indiana From Age 8 to 21."
The scenes of Lincoln's life in Indiana form a map around the Ohio River:
A red and brown compass depicts cardinal directions with four large points and cursive letters: "W", "N", "E", and "S". Between each letter there are three smaller brown points. The compass has a dark brown circle in its center, with light brown, cream, and red rings.
Construction of Here I Grew Up and the Rubin sculpture of Lincoln was postponed for at least a year after the art competition by the Indiana State Office Building Commission.[3] The mosaic alone cost $35,280 in 1962,[4] leading some members of the commission, such as chairman Indiana Lieutenant Governor Crawford F. Parker, to oppose funding the art in order to allocate taxpayer money to social welfare projects. In 1961, one of the jury members who helped select the winning entries for the competition wrote to then Governor of Indiana, Matthew E. Welsh, on behalf of the mosaic and the statue of Lincoln:
After the mosaic was completed in the lobby of the State Office building, located west of the Indiana Statehouse, worker offices shared the space and fabric banners were mounted to reduce noise. With the office infrastructure and banners in place, only portions of the mosaic were visible. Plans were made in the late 1980s to demolish the lobby that housed the mosaic to make way for office expansion. The director of the Indiana State Office Building Commission, John C. Fleck, estimated that the removal and re-installation of the mural would cost $155,000. However, the building remains and is now called Indiana Government Center North.[5] The $220 million office complex expansion resulted in the construction of a new office building, Indiana Government Center South; renovation of Indiana Government Center North, and two parking garages.[6]
Garo Z. Antreasian (1922 - 2018) was a native of Indianapolis, Indiana. His career began as an artist in World War II, where he was an artist-correspondent with the United States Coast Guard. Antreasian returned to Indianapolis in 1946, and graduated from the Herron School of Art in 1948. Beginning in the 1950s he was a faculty member at the Herron School of Art and he relocated to the University of New Mexico in 1970.[7] He also was the technical director of the first modern lithography print shop, Tamarind Lithography Workshop, in Los Angeles, California.[8]
Before designing Here I Grew Up, Antreasian completed several projects around the city of Indianapolis and the state of Indiana that depicted Indiana history and landmarks. In 1956, he was commissioned by Indiana University to design a mural about the history of the school since its founding in 1820.[9]