"Greener Pastures" Mosaic Installation

For several months - starting in September '08 - I have been working on a large mosaic project headed by my friend and fellow Bay Area mosaic artist Delaine Hackney, pictured below.

Earlier in the year she was commissioned to create a mosaic piece for the front of a new building under construction. This piece consists of 9 pillars, all approximately 14 feet tall and 5 feet around. Delaine named it "Greener Pastures" - for the good times to come - and it now brightens the corner of Adeline and San Pablo in Emeryville, California. After several discussions with the architect and others, the design was honed down to be professional looking, visually captivating and yet not too flashy. Anyone who has ever had to sit in a design meeting hashing out an art project knows how difficult this must have been.

Delaine's final design consists of multiple-sized mosaic circles all in shades of green that sit in a field of 1 inch Penny Round tiles in an off-white color. 650 square feet of these small tiles were required!

But for those of you who know Delaine it will be no surprise that the green circles would not be made of just boring factory tiles!
We used any green tile or bauble that she could find.
And Saundra Warren was commissioned to make 12 green circles of various hues and textures only to have us smash them up to use!

Old tiles, newly bought tiles, found objects like bangle earrings and glass frogs are all included in these circles.

The installation took about three weeks and finished at the end of January '09.

Here are just some of the circles laid out at the begining of the installation.

Our mosaic-artist friend and all-around good egg, Julia Alpers, joined us for the install and was invaluable with her knowledge of perfectly square and level setting. She taught us a lot!

The weather veered from very cold and rainy to very hot and dry.
We worked on ladders and scaffolding and got used to some pretty precarious situations!

As Julia and Delaine would finish a pillar I would move in to grout it.
We were a great team - like a machine!
And for two days Mary Earl, a mosaic artist from Las Vegas, drove all the way up to lend a hand and be part of the action too.

Ichiban, Delaine's beloved dog,

and Julia's Olive, were our doggy support team and provided comic relief.

We were in the midst of some serious construction and at one point Julia was overwhelmed by a desire to pilot this steamroller. I have to say the guys on this job site were great. Helpful, nice, respectful and fun.
As the time passed we raced to stay one step ahead of the window installers!

In this visually over-stimulated world we live in, drivers speeding by will barely notice these pillars.

Pedestrians might notice the multiple colors, textures, sizes and designs as they stroll by.

But for adventurous people who spend time with them - perhaps people who live and shop in and near this building - these circles will provide endless entertainment and visual treasure hunting opportunites. There are 210 circles in total and Delaine and I each mosaicked about half of them. She, of course, did the very special ones!
This job should be done soon so I can post a finished photo without the construction equipment obscuring the view.
See more of Delaine Hackney's work here and Julia Alpers here.

Fireplace Surround Mosaic

In December '08 I received a commission to do a fireplace surround for a very nice family - the Rich's. They have a beautiful Craftsman-style house and were having a new fireplace inset installed as well as a new mantle.

The area around the inset is small - too small for traditional large tiles that are usually used on a fireplace. The area is delineated by tape in the photo above. Instead they decided on a small, simple mosaic and contacted me to do it.
Coincidentally the owners love gingko leaves and,
as you have read in previous posts, I knew the perfect artist to create them out
of ceramic tile - Saundra Warren, a Jingletown artist!

In the above photo you can see the Hardiebacker board that was put in place by the contractor. The flooring around the work area was brand new too so I took extra precautions - like putting down newspapers, beach towels and then a tarp - to avoid damaging it. The area of the mosaic itself is only about 6 square feet and the room - the dining room - is small too.
So I felt that just a subtle, low-key mosaic was called for.

This is the almost-finished product. All it needs is the mantle to be installed.
I used mostly earthy greens but with various textures and finishes to provide visual interest. And I mixed charcoal grout with the too-bright hue of the straight-from-the-bag dark green grout to tone the color down some.

And Saundra's gingko leaves in Autumn amber and rust provide the highlights.
The mantle is due to be installed soon. I cant wait to see this piece actually finished!

MERRY CHRISTMAS Art!

Christmas Kitty

18" x 24"
2007
Acrylic wash & colored pencilFlying Santa

18" x 24"
Pencil

Santa's Visit

24" x 18"
Pencil

Three Wise Men

18" x 24"
Pencil

The Prophet

18" x 24"
Pencil

Rock Frogs, the latest

Green & Purple Frog
15" x 24"
11/08
mirror, stained glass, rocks

Red Frog

23" x 36"
11/08
mirror, stained glass, rocks

Indian Elephant Mosaic

This was a recent commission for a person who loves the way ceremonial elephants are decorated in India.
"Indian Elephant"
20.5" long x 14.5" tall
Mirrored and stained glass
2008

More Circus Elephant Mosaics

This is a blue version of the previous elephants done in pinks, reds and blacks.
They are made of mirrored and stained glass on Easyboard.
Tail to trunk, as they are meant to be displayed, they measure 31" x 13".

The Mama Elephant is 16.5" long x 13" tall

The Baby Elephant is 16" long x 10" tall.

These were created in November 2008 and will be on display during this year's Jingletown Holiday Art Walk, December 6 & 7 from 11:30 - 5:00.

Mosaic Lemon Bench

My friend, Saundra Warren, and I have just completed our first project. (I've written about Saundra in a couple of previous posts) We started from scratch with just an idea and, voila, the result is this Lemon Bench. And this is Saundra hard at work.

Recently Saundra had purchased a tile saw. As you may know, nowadays when you buy a large item, it is very common for it to come encased in a styrofoam box within the outer cardboard box. Saundra had an idea for us to put that styrofoam, usually a nuisance to dispose of, to good use. We decided to turn it into a cement bench that we could then mosaic. First we covered it with strips of fiberglass mesh dipped in a cement slurry - like paper mache only using cement instead of flour. After we had totally encased the styrofoam with it, we covered it with cement. Tips and techniques on how to do this are all over the web. And it's easy and fun to do too.

Next we needed to decide where the bench would ultimately "live". I have a sweet and rustic little brick area under a lemon tree out in my backyard, so we chose that place. Saundra is an expert at taking leaves, fruit and other organic things and making ceramic tiles and molds out of them.

So we took lemon leaves and lemons from my tree, as well as ivy leaves which grow all around it, and began a long process of creating the decorations for the bench. They came out just great.

With Saundra's personal tutoring on how to get the glaze to come out just right, and after some wrestling with the kilns, our ceramic pieces were ready. We supplemented with factory tiles in various shades of white and with small hits of other color tiles too. I also created some glass and mirror butterflies on Easyboard to add sparkle. Then we grouted with Antique White to keep the crisp white look against the natural colors in the environment.

We are very happy with our first triumph. But we have learned a lot too and will put our new knowledge to use on our next project - "The Persimmon Trio". Stay tuned!

"Lemon Bench"
Kim Larson & Saundra Warren
November 2008
32" wide x 23" tall x 15" deep
Handmade tiles, factory tiles and glass