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

Mosaic Stairs - Dawn's Sunrise

My latest work is a mosaic on the front staircase of a home. These were the stairs before:

Here are the stairs after:

My client wanted to paint and beautify the front of her house and wanted a piece of art that would make her happy when she comes home. The design had to be easily readable "chopped up" as it would be on the front of each riser with a thick "lip" separating each image.She and I went through a few design ideas - a tree, a butterfly - but settled on a sunrise. The clients first name is Dawn so we thought this would be TOTALLY perfect!!

 I worked on mesh in my studio. I had some fits and starts at the beginning trying to figure out a lay pattern for the sun. But I was able to settle on one style for the sun (small squares of color)...

 and a more traditional pattern (triangles) for the "rays"- along with different colors of mirror for sparkle!

I finished the studio work pretty quickly but had to wait through several rainstorms for a good dry stretch to be able to do the installation and grouting. Here is my set-up for the installation...

...and for the next day's grouting.

Here are several photos of the finished piece from different angles:

 

  Dawn dropped by last evening with a wonderful heartfelt note of thanks and a little metal box shaped like a Hamsa for me. I have been very lucky with the type of people who have commissioned me to create artwork for them!!

Dawn's Sunrise 

7 separate mosaics of 54" x 4" each. 

Kim Larson   2012

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

Jingletown's Open Studios June 5, 6 & 12, 13 2010

It's time again for Open Studios in Jingletown - the East Bay's coolest art's community. Located on the Oakland Riviera, off of 880 between the Park Street and Fruitvale Bridges, Jingletown is a homey little community with a lively art scene. This June over 25 artists will be showing everything from jewelry and photography to painting and mosaics. Come for the art, stroll around to see even more art! The streets are positively littered with mosaic murals. Stop in at the 4:20 Gallery where I will be showing these new pieces. They are a departure for me in that I am experimenting with mixing the strict lay patterns of hard tile with the more intuitive flow of glass.
"Saint"
30" x 56"
Tile and glass
2010

"Vase"
27" x 47"
Tile and glass
2010"Southwest Pastiche"
17" x 36"
Tile and glass
2010"Koi"
16" x 32"
Tile and glass
2010"Frog on Leaf 1"
31" x 15"
Tile and glass
2010"Frog on Leaf 2"
28" x 15"
Tile and glass
2010

Bright Ideas Mural

Jingletown has a new mosaic.

Well, technically it's just over the bridge in Alameda on Blanding Street.

The name is "Bright Ideas" and it is a 365 square foot, 75 foot long mural on the
facade of a software company named Perforce.

Delaine Hackney designed it, Julie Alpers and I assisted in the mosaic work
and the three of us did the installation.
(Mary Earl, a mosaic artist from Las Vegas
came up to pitch in on the installation too.)

As the viewer walks up on this image from either end,
he will think that it is simply a design of colorful circles.
But those soon coalesce into the main image - a woman blowing bubbles - and the
whole image takes shape.

This work has three large separate sections - a small planter on the left:

the large center section:

and a large planter to the right:

Farther down the sidewalk there are even a few "bubbles" that
have blown out of the "frame":

Unlike the last installations which necessitated scary scaffolding and rickety ladders,
this site was at street level. Inside the building there was an elevator we could use
and outside there was a ramp instead of stairs! Very civilized.

So of course we had to take advantage of the ramp and have some fun.

Here we are ramp-surfing!

But after the frivolity it was time to get serious
so Delaine gently nudged us back to work.

She runs a tight ship!

Delaine's style is to use found objects and other elements of surprise in her designs.
This work includes small animal tiles. If the viewer looks closely he will see cats:

frogs:

and my favorites, ANTS:

This job was fun, not only because the logistics were easy
but the "audience" - Perforce employees, pedestrians,
neighborhood denizens - were all engaged and enthralled by the art and the process.
We had many visitors while we worked.
The weather veered wildly from freezing cold to boiling hot
but we got the installation done in three weeks.

Exhaustion made us giddy so by the end of the installation
we would yell "Ta Daaaaa" after each section was complete.
The closer we got to the end, the louder and longer would be our "Ta Daaaa".
It became a silly but fun tradition.
So here we are - Julie, me and Delaine - saying "Ta Daaaa"
to the completion of "Bright Ideas":

Here is a map that shows not only where this new mosaic is (indicated by the red dot) but where all the many mosaics in Jingletown can be found.