Titled “Initium (beginning),” Karen Arm’s mosaic welcomes visitors to the LIRR Yaphank-BNL Station plaza with a radiant depiction of an astronomical “globular cluster”—a tightly bound collection of millions of stars. Located near Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), the artwork serves as an artistic counterpart to the scientific inquiry taking place just beyond the station. Where BNL scientists investigate the universe at the scale of particles and phenomena invisible to the human eye, Arm’s mosaic brings the vast and celestial down to human scale. 

Drawing from a studio practice rooted in meticulous, layered mark‑making, Arm translated her interest in luminosity and accumulation into a mosaic surface animated by hundreds of hand‑cut glass tesserae. Working with Miotto Mosaic Art Studios, she adapted her characteristic gestures into a physical language of color, texture, and light. The result invites viewers to step closer, tracing shifting patterns of radiance that unfold across the artwork’s surface. “Initium (beginning)” reflects Arm’s ongoing exploration of how small, deliberate elements coalesce into expansive, atmospheric fields that echo the forces shaping the cosmos.