Tag Archives: mosaic art

Mosaic sturgeon will be brightening up Astoria- Part 1

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Hello good peoples of the internet! I would like to introduce you all to a wonderful mosaic artist, a fabulous pie baker, and an all around awesome human being- and they all exist in the person that is Lynn Adamo of Hillsboro, Oregon.

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Lynn enjoying her pie and ice cream

It’s hard to believe, but Lynn is all that and more.

She recently won a commission from the City of Astoria to do a 10 foot diameter mosaic to be placed in a new park in the heart of Astoria.
The premise of the park is to honor the immigrants who helped build our great Northwest as well as honor a bit of the natural history of Astoria to boot.
The sturgeons depicted in Lynn’s mosaic are representing the fish canning industry that helped make Astoria prosperous.

Mexican smalti “tortillas” (thick, richly colored slabs of glass) were created specifically for this project and are being laid by many hands under the direction of Lynn.
She has created a veritable hive (or swarm?!) of worker bees from which to draw on when the projects get large, and/or the time window for completion is short.

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Janie prepping smalti “B” cuts for installation

I am lucky enough to be one of the happy drones working on this gorgeous endevour.

I first went up to Hillsboro (home of Intel) around the 3rd or 4th week into the project. When I arrived things were well underway with one fish completed and another begun.

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I  worked with Sandy Arbogast, Jan, and Scott over three full days-and we made some respectable progress, finishing the second sturgeon

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The meals were fantastic during my first visit too. P1000353Bob grilled us a fabulous flank steak one night and some delicious pork the next. Served with his home-brewed beer- what could be better!

And as if that weren’t enough- Lynn topped it off with one of her amazing berry pies with berries fresh from their own yard.

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I was absolutely spoiled. And I loved every minute of it.

Mosaics are time intensive- and even with the 5 of us working we weren’t able to finish the last fish before I made my way back down the trail to Talent.

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Luckily she had some more great workers with her the next week-Richard Davis and Jennifer Kuhns. Both experienced mosaic artists in their own rights, they whipped through the last of the fish and moved onto the water before their three days were up.

In addition, Richard whipped up some fabulous gourmet meals using his culinary background as a chef. The photos I saw on Lynn’s blog looked good enough to eat!

Now I am geared up for my next mosaic session with Lynn. It’s round two and I’m determined to just “knock it out of the park”-as Lynn might say. You who know her know she is a HUGE baseball fan. It warms my heart just thinking about her checking the scores throughout the days-keeping tabs on her Giants on the laptop as she toils away 🙂

Paul’s mosaic panels are completed

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After I created this exterior mosaic mirror to coordinate with my client’s new interior furnishings, he was so pleased he commissioned two more pieces for the entry walkway to his home.

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Paul’s mosaic mirror created in January 2013.

He lives in a beautiful complex on the shore of the bay in Tampa, Florida and has a walkway bridge that leads to his screened in porch and front door. The mirror hangs on his  porch.

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I created two panels that played off of his mosaic mirror design, as well as bringing in some new textures.

These panels were a combination of the original mirror, and the address plaque I made for my friend Penelope earlier this year, in my post “Penelope’s Plaque”.

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Address plaque created for Penelope in early 2013.

The client liked Penelope’s panel and wanted something similar, but in the same palette as his mirror and the colors from his home.

Here’s what we decided to do- one panel with 2 circles (12″ x 24″), and one panel with 3 circles (12″ x 36″). He left the rest up to me and here are the results:

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Paul’s 2 circle panel.

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Paul’s 3 circle panel.

These pieces include stained glass, handmade and commercial ceramic tile, mirror, commercial vitreous mosaic tiles, iridescent tiles, glass beads, millifiori, and Italian smalti left over from the Hannon Library mosaic installed in Ashland, Oregon in 2005.

I tied these panels to the mirror by making the background the same, as well as carrying over the color schemes. I feel they were pretty successful and also fun to make.

I find abstracts much more relaxing to create than realistic work. My mind is focused on the basics and not on “does it look like ___?” or not. I can allow myself to let go and play more. I have a feeling I’ll be going more in this direction in the future.

Anyhow, I’m shipping these panels out tomorrow and I look forward to seeing the photos once they’re installed on the pillars. Let me know what you think, feel, etc. about this work or anything else on my blog.

Mosaic Town is growing

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Mosaic town has been growing steadily over the past week, and is almost complete. I have added three new buildings and created several montage photos so you can see the process as well as the various views of the new buildings.

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This is the 2 Story House made of handmade ceramic tile with a glass mosaic tile roof.

I created the texture on the red tile by rolling the wet clay onto a sheet of deeply textured fabric, then lifting and repositioning the fabric and rolling it again. The glaze catches in the different depths of the texture, causing some areas to have deeper colors than others.

The little yellow swirls are left over sun-centers from my History Underfoot mosaic. They make me happy, and I wanted a happy home- so there they are!

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The next building to be created was the Mod Building. Not sure where this came from in my head, though the Price Tower by Frank Lloyd Wright, in my hometown in Oklahoma, has always been a big influence. It might be a residence, it might be an office, it’s up to your imagination.

This one is covered in three colors of handmade tile, sea foam and clear with a touch of green for the walls, and forest green for the roof areas. The windows are made of a painted glass that adds great depth, as well as suggesting an interior light source.

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The final building I see as a Theatre of some sort. Cinema probably, though could be a regular theatre too.

It is covered in a huge array of colors and textures I have had sitting in my studio for a couple of years now. The front and sides are in a bright cheerful yellow, with the back being made of a combination of red and textured red handmade tiles.

The decorative tiles around the doors and windows are bits from tiles that warped or cracked in the kiln, but I didn’t want to throw away. The roof is made of orange tile and orange/brown tile from a failed attempt at a platter. I used the platter edges to edge the front of the roof. Oh, and the gingko leaf on the back is cut from the same failed platter. Happy it found a home here.

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So the town is now complete. I grouted them today, and as soon as I can find the appropriate garden setting I’ll photograph them to post here, and they’ll be up for grabs by some lucky new owner. Of course they need to live indoors in the winter to prolong their lifespan, but what a fun way to decorate your home!

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Progress on Mosaic Town

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Just a brief update on my little town project.

Today I completed another building I think of as the Office Building-with a striated copper tiled roof of glass and seafoam green handmade ceramic tile for the walls.

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Again-this is ungrouted to date.

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I am starting on the 2 Story House tomorrow, but have already deviated from my original drawn ideas.

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I loved these little yellow spirals I had left from a previous project, so decided to use them here.
The doors/windows will be of glass tile, while the main house siding will be a textured red ceramic tile I made a year or more ago.
I’ll keep you all updated on the progress.

Mosaics and Art at Downtowne Coffee

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Back in 2005 I was a member of a studio called Phoenix Clay and Steelworks in Phoenix, OR. We had shared ceramic equipment, kilns, and our own 10′ x 10′ workspaces in one large room, as well as a classroom and gallery.

PCW -front of buildingw-designWe wanted the studio to be welcoming to the community and we wanted to brighten up the city of Phoenix with our art.

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I decided to make a double door surround for the classroom that incorporated both clay and steel in the form of broken tile mosaics with the theme of a town at the base, and flowers growing up out of the city.

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The town was going to be smallish three dimensional buildings covered in mosaics. Some were attached to the mosaic surface, others were free standing.

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The stems of the flowers were to be bent 1/2″steel rods that undulated on and off the facade of the mosaics rising up out of the town via the chimneys and smokestacks.

Bright colors of yellow and deep blues were accented by red, purple, and orange flowers. All of handmade tiles.

So I spent five months making this huge thing, and the week I finished I was informed the place was out of money and closing down!

So I took my mosaic panels (on 1/2″ durarock boards), and moved out of there. I carted the panels around for two or more years, trying to find a place where they would work so my work wouldn’t be for naught.

I ended up moving into Talent, OR in 2008, and discovered the Downtowne Coffeehouse right on the main drag of Talent Ave. Their sign has a little silhouette of a town that reminded me of my little city.

P1010382The building had originally been built as a gas station back in the nineteen twenties, and still has the two main posts holding up the porch that you used to drive under to keep you out of the weather as you serviced your auto.

They were looking pretty shoddy when I saw them. Paint peeling off, pretty ugly…and you know where this is going I bet…

I asked if they’d be interested in having my mosaics on their posts! I showed them to the owners, we discussed converting them from their original purpose, and away I went.

P1010367I knew after measuring and messing about that I’d need more square footage, so I had to make new tile, add panels, and cut the panels I’d already made into two.

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P1010947I also added coffee cups that I sawed into halves using a wet saw, and placed them so that they were like the

blossoms of the flowers climbing the posts. In addition, I needed to make a new city! I had sold the original buildings in the interim and so I designed a new flatter city and made new panels to accommodate the posts.

This all took me another couple of months or more to do. I must have had time on my hands back then…! I know I had more energy.

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Anyway, the posts were finally finished and ready to be installed.

That part took forever, as it liked to rain when I was installing, and we found out one of the old posts is twisted like a corkscrew, and other fun stuff to boot.

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But finally it was over! After at least 8 months of work my payment is – “free coffee for life”.

Not a bad deal,  since I live a block from there, and it’s really the only game in town as far as a place to hang out and catch up with folks. I consider it the hub of our community, and am happy to say they are expanding and almost ready to open up and out as a coffeehouse/restaurant – serving more great food and expanding their hours into the evenings. As you can see, this is an old photo- the place has a beautiful new look and paint job as well as an expansion on the rear of the building, plus a painted mural on the side.P1010952

downtowne coffeehouse 4 copyFor the new expansion they decided they needed a new logo- and who else to ask? Me! So with the guidance of the owners, I designed a little city in a coffee cup. This is not the final logo- but close. Next comes the city on the roof that’s been designed by Robert Frost, and perhaps painted by me if I can get a trade on food now…

AND they allow me to hang a few of my ceramic tile plaques in their store entry for me to sell at no cost.P1020237P1020576P1020177

Gotta love this place, and this community. Thanks Dan and Sara Goyette for  making this a great place to live and a great place for art!!P1020496