Artwork: "Blooming" (Elizabeth Murray)

The mezzanine between the BMT level and the IRT East Side/Lexington Ave. Subway level has a large-scale mosaic mural entitled Blooming, by Elizabeth Murray. It covers all four walls of the mezzanine area. The mosaic features larger version of the coffee cups and slippers found on the platform walls, with the text: "In dreams begin responsibilities" and "Conduct your blooming in the noise and discipline of the whirlwind." These lines float from the coffee cups and are excerpts from poetry of Delmore Schwartz and Gwendolyn Brooks.

From mta.info: The arboreal images relate to the neighborhood that was called Bloomingdale even before the department store arrived. "After the blooming tree, I added stepping shoes and steaming coffee cups. These are part of the ritual of every morning or evening subway trip", says the artist.

From cmom.org: "Her paintings are generally abstract still lives comprised of simple objects from her everyday life, such as shoes, cups and spoons. Her abstract shapes appear to be alive due to their brilliant colors and they way that the shapes seem to be thrusting out from the wall into the third dimension. ... Murray's work falls within a long tradition of painted still life's, but exhibits a creativity and energy that is unique. Her style is playful and easily recognizable. She often notes the parallels between painting and play."

From usinfo.org: "One of Murray's newest works is also the largest and most ambitious of her career -- a 120- foot mosaic mural that graces the mezzanine of a subway station in midtown New York City. The mural depicts a richly-colored fantasy of sunbursts, coffee cups and serpentine tree branches. "I had this vision of people getting up really early, half in a dream state, putting on their clothes, drinking a cup of coffee and getting on the subway to go to work," [said the artist].