It’s impossible to miss: The mirror-mosaic building on Long Beach Boulevard in Surf City catches every eye like sun rays on the bay. What once was, as owner Joanne Dozor’s friend had described it, “the ugliest building I’ve ever seen” now sparkles with thousands of reflective tiles, harboring hidden treasures – a frog here, a mermaid there, fragments assembled into something that stops traffic.

MULTIFACETED: Both beacon and metaphor, the exterior was designed in 2006 with mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar. Owner Joanne Dozor created magic from a gas station. Her watercolors hang with other local artists’ work.(Photos by Ryan Morrill)

But the real magic happens inside Firefly Gallery. Part boutique, part art gallery, part collective hub, the place is a living, breathing creative ecosystem…