Elephant Head Mosaic

I have neighbors who love elephants and have opened my eyes to their amazing souls and physical majesty. So I have started the first of 4 bas relief mosaics. These two photos are of the same mosaic. It is made of glass and mirror on Wedi board. The Wedi is covered with cement to give it a shallow 3 dimensional look. 18" x 18". 

Underwater Staircase - mosaic commission

I am running with an artistic theme lately - fish, sea life and the element of water. I even started swimming again not too long ago. Well, water is a powerful force. It represents the emotional realm and, to me, imparts a feeling of moving gracefully through life.

 In July I was inspired to create some 3 dimensional mosaic fish. And then a commission came up to create a mosaic for a front staircase at a private residence in Oakland, CA. 

These clients, with only an outline of an idea, allowed me the freedom to create whatever I wanted. And the vision that came into my mind was "underwater." So I began by designing a simple sketch on the computer and had it printed out full size.

 Then I cut it out and traced it onto the Wedi board that I will mosaic onto. Each finished board will then be screwed onto the front of the stairs.

 I cut out of Wedi Board several small and one large fish, and a large turtle.  I used cement on several of these elements to round their surfaces to create a little bit of a 3 dimensional look. I mosaicked all the small elements and then laid them out on the stair cut-outs to start to get an idea of what this would look like.

 Then I began to mosaic the rest of the piece with tiles. Greens for the seaweed, dark blues for the deep water and lighter blues for the swirl in the middle.

 Each day I made significant progress and would lay out the finished pieces on my studio floor to see how it was going. It was going pretty well!

So now this part of the project is finished. I am creating two more stairs on mesh as I write this. They will complete the bottom of the stair case where the stairs are curved.

Underwater Staircase

*work in progress*

14 stairs, each 50" long

Jingletown's Tree of Life Mosaic

This is another panel on the Peterson Street Art Garden in the Jingletown neighborhood in Oakland. 

  

My friend and tile maker, Saundra Warren, had neighbors come to her studio to create ceramic "leaves" for this tree. There are about 250 handmade and personalized creations in this tree.  

You can see that many of the leaves are so creative they arent even leaves!! There is a whale, some cats and even two cars! 

 

This labor of love took Saundra and I about 6 months to mosaic. She has since moved to Salem, Oregon. Oakland's loss is Salem's gain! I will miss her.

 

 You can refer to past posts to see more of the process of us creating this wall. The painting around it will be finished soon by another neighborhood mural artist - Jill McLennan. 
Here are some close-up photos:

Tree of Life Mosaic

18' x 10' approx

Peterson Street Art Garden

Jingletown, Oakland, California, USA

Celtic Knot Mosaic

This was a commission for a Father's Day gift this year. 

A Celtic Knot mosaic.

13" x 13"

May 2011

Flat Fish Extravaganza Mosaic!

This is my latest sculpture-for-mosaic. 

I began this project indoors back in November.

  I created the armature out of styrofoam that I then covered in 

fiberglass mesh dredged through a cement slurry. Its a messy process.

After the fiberglass mesh set, I covered the whole sculpture 

with cement - molding and shaping as I went. 

I had envisioned a flat-shaped fish jumping 

out of the water.

As the sculpting progressed I knew I needed 

more room to work on him. I also knew I needed to move him closer 

to where he would be finally displayed - because as I added 

Thinset, glass and grout, he would become heavier and heavier. 

So I moved him out to my front porch and worked on him there 

when the weather permitted. It being winter, however, 

I had to stop for many days at a time. 

Slowly, though, he took shape! 
So here he is finished from many angles.

I cut each piece by hand and laid them specifically in relation 

to each other - to make the colors blend in the viewers eye.

The lay pattern on the back is my first attempt at the Opus Vermiculatum style of mosaic. 

 The underside of his tail is a swirling freeform mosaic style.

 

 Flat Fish Extravaganza

Finished April 1, 2011

30" tall x 29" wide x 34" long

Latest Work Aug/Oct '10

Hello again! As you can tell by the date of my last post, I havent written much lately. I have been working on new - for me - ideas.
First, I took the summer off to take a driving trip around the Southwest.
I love it there and we just meandered around,
camping and being off the grid - sort of.
But by the end of the summer I really wanted to get back to work.
I get really depressed if I dont have projects.
I love 3D mosaics, especially large sculptures. So I tried my hand at what I am calling "popsicles." They are shapes cut out of styrofoam, skewered on a 1/2" rebar, covered with fiberglass mesh and cement slurry, then finished with concrete. Then I used these as
substrates for mosaics. Some have the same mosaic
pattern on both sides, some are different on both sides.
These are my first attempts and are extremely imperfect.
But I am definitely on a path toward 3D mosaics and I love that!
Its a steep learning curve though.

Butterfly (popsicle)
18" wide x 16" tall x 3" deep
Stands 35" approx.
Fall 2010

Fish, side 1 (popsicle)
24" wide x 16" tall x 3" deep
Stands 28" approx.
Fall 2010

Fish, side 2 (popsicle)
24" wide x 16" tall x 3" deep
Stands 28" approx.
Fall 2010

Frog, side 1 (popsicle)
21" wide x 36" tall x 3" deep
Stands 51" approx.
Fall 2010

Frog, side 2 (popsicle)
21" wide x 36" tall x 3" deep
Stands 51" approx.
Fall 2010

Sunflower (popsicle)
20" wide x 27" tall x 4" deep
Stands 37" approx.
Fall 2010