Bead Town Ruston Exhibit

German born artist Stephan Wanger lives in New Orleans and channels his creative energy into assembling dazzling mosaics using recycled Mardi Gras beads.  Working in a photo-realistic style, Wanger re-creates scenes, images and icons of Louisiana to bring an awareness to the world of the innate beauty and wonder of Louisiana's unique culture and varied communities.

His  masterpiece "Sanctuary of Alegria:  Home of Happiness" is a 30 foot-long and 8 foot-tall piece depicting the New Orleans skyline and contains over 1 million Mardi Gras beads.  Each bead is glued one bead at a time. This piece took 15 months to create and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for most Mardi Gras beads used in an art piece.