Artist and teacher Eric Mueller, 59, drew a crowd of onlookers when he erected a display outside his home featuring 27 wooden angels that he and some friends made to honor the number of people killed in the shooting.
NEWTOWN, Conn. — The tall, lanky man seemed like he was on a mission as he tapped 27 wooden angels into a hillside outside his Newtown home.Eric Mueller, 59, an art teacher at Hopkins School in New Haven, said he made the wood cutouts with help from some friends, and a crowd of curious onlookers gathered to watch as he hammered the angels into the cold, damp ground on Sunday afternoon.
Artist Eric Mueller erected 27 wooden angels outside his Newtown home on Sunday. Twenty-seven is the number of people killed by gunman Adam Lanza, who took his own life after the mass shooting.
"How many angels?" shouted a reporter."
"Twenty-seven, not 28," Mueller replied. "I wavered on that. If the sentiment went that way, I could entertain that."
Twenty-seven is the number of people who were killed Friday in this close-knit town where everyone seems to know everyone else. Adam Lanza, 20, killed his mother at her home before going to nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he killed another 26 people including 20 kids between the ages of six and seven.
He saved a final shot for himself, leaving Newtown, the nation and much of the world trying to comprehend the enormity of the Christmas-season massacre, which now ranks as the nation's second deadliest mass shooting.
Mueller demonstrated a level of graciousness that most people can't seem to muster, admitting that he'd entertain the idea of erecting an angel for Lanza, bringing the grand total to 28. For now, though, the white-haired artist said he would settle for 27 angels.
When asked why he had created the display, which prompted passersby to snap photos and to pause and reflect, Mueller responded, "Oh, just because it was close to home. I just felt like I needed to respond somehow."
Members of the media and passersby stopped to view Eric Mueller's display outside his Newtown, Conn., home on Sunday. Mueller, an art teacher, erected 27 angels in honor of the number of victims from Friday's shooting in the northern Fairfield County town.
Mueller, who studied art at Kenyon College and earned a master's in art from Washington University in St. Louis, scrambled up the steep hillside to retrieve more angels. When he returned, the crowd outside his Church Hill Road home had grown exponentially.
"If it gives people a lift, that would be nice," said Mueller, who also has made furniture and built boats in his lifetime.
After planting the last angel in the ground, Mueller surveyed the display and ascended the hill.