ArtBuzz

Bluegill Glass Mosaic No. 2, 2006

Bluegill Mosaic No. 2, 2006 Sicis Iridium glass tile, glass taxidermy eye, copper. 11" H x 17.5" W x 1.5" D
Purchase Bluegill Mosaic No. 2 for $550 ($500 plus $50 S+H).
My daughter Mya did so well last summer  helping me with mosaic that this year I had her create a whole line of fish. She got to do the fun parts—laying the tile and working out the gradients and shading— I did the mortar, grout, copper banding and provided some small amount of editorial assistance. The work sells at the normal studio rate because it's totally worth it. Her skills are far beyond what you'd expect from a teenager, or even most professional artists. Most of the tile used on this mosaic is from the Iridium line of glass from Sicis. As the light or viewing angle changes, the iridescent surface of the tile closely resembles the  scales of a live fish. The   photo above shows the iridescent sheen. The second pic shows the copper banding that finishes and protects the mosaic. Mosaic is set with mortar on a Hardibacker substrate over plywood and finished around the edges with copper banding. Indoors or out, this mosaic will last lifetimes.

Rainbow Trout Mosaic, 2006

Rainbow Trout Mosaic, 2006 Sicis Iridium glass tile, glass taxidermy eye, copper, Hardibacker substrate. 9" H x 21.25" W x 1.5" D Collaboration: John T. Unger + Mya Smith
Purchase Rainbow Trout Mosaic for $550 ($500 plus $50 S+H).
My daughter Mya did so well last summer  helping me with mosaic that this year I had her create a whole line of fish. She got to do the fun parts—laying the tile and working out the gradients and shading— I did the mortar, grout, copper banding and provided some small amount of editorial assistance. The work sells at the normal studio rate because it's totally worth it. Her skills are far beyond what you'd expect from a teenager, or even most professional artists. Most of the tile used on this mosaic is from the Iridium line of glass from Sicis. As the light or viewing angle changes, the iridescent surface of the tile closely resembles the  scales of a live fish. The   photo above shows the iridescent sheen. The second pic shows the copper banding that finishes and protects the mosaic. The mosaic is set with mortar on a Hardibacker substrate over plywood and finished around the edges with copper banding. Indoors or out, this mosaic will last lifetimes.

Brook Trout Glass Mosaic No. 2, 2006

Brook Trout Mosaic No. 2, 2006 Sicis Iridium glass tile, glass taxidermy eye, copper, Hardibacker substrate. 11" H x 19" W x 1.5" D Collaboration: John T. Unger + Mya Smith
Purchase Brook Trout Mosaic No. 2 for $550 ($500 plus $50 S+H).
My daughter Mya did so well last summer  helping me with mosaic that this year I had her create a whole line of fish. She got to do the fun parts—laying the tile and working out the gradients and shading— I did the mortar, grout, copper banding and provided some small amount of editorial assistance. The work sells at the normal studio rate because it's totally worth it. Her skills are far beyond what you'd expect from a teenager, or even most professional artists. Most of the tile used on this mosaic is from the Iridium line of glass from Sicis. As the light or viewing angle changes, the iridescent surface of the tile closely resembles the  scales of a live fish. The   photo above shows the iridescent sheen. The second pic shows the copper banding that finishes and protects the mosaic. The mosaic is set with mortar on a Hardibacker substrate over plywood and finished around the edges with copper banding. Indoors or out, this mosaic will last lifetimes.

Lunula Tropical Fish Mosaic

Lunula Tropical Fish Mosaic, 2006 Vitreous glass tile, steel frame. 17.25" H x 17.25" W x .75" D Collaboration: John T. Unger + Mya Smith
Purchase Lunula Tropical Fish Mosaic for $560 ($500 plus $60 S+H).
Mya and I collaborated on a few mosaic panels this summer that can either be hung on the wall or converted to table tops. She was really into fish by this point in time, so that's what we did. Mosaic is set with mortar on a Hardibacker substrate  in a steel frame. Indoors or out, this mosaic will last lifetimes.

Lineolatus Tropical Fish Mosaic

Lineolatus Tropical Fish Mosaic, 2006 Vitreous glass tile, steel frame. 17.25" H x 17.25" W x .75" D Collaboration: John T. Unger + Mya Smith
Purchase Lineolatus Tropical Fish Mosaic for $560 ($500 plus $60 S+H).
Mya and I collaborated on a few mosaic panels this summer that can either be hung on the wall or converted to table tops. This one is particularly striking. A great accent for kitchen or bath, patio or yard. Mosaic is set with mortar on a Hardibacker substrate in a steel frame. Indoors or out, this mosaic will last lifetimes.

Crazy Whale Glass Mosaic Panel

Crazy Whale Glass Mosaic, 2006 Vitreous glass tile, steel frame. 25" H x 20" W x .75" D Collaboration: John T. Unger + Mya Smith
Purchase Crazy Whale Glass Mosaic for $880 ($800 plus $80 S+H).
Mya and I collaborated on a few mosaic panels this summer that can either be hung on the wall or converted to table tops. She was really into fish by this point in time, so that's what we did. This one reminds Maggie of "rollicking 60's beach towels." Could be just the thing to turn your back yard into a beach party. Yay! Mosaic is set with mortar on a Hardibacker substrate  in a steel frame. Indoors or out, this mosaic will last lifetimes.

New Iridescent Glass Fish Mosaics

My daughter Mya and I collaborated this summer on the five fish below… she got to do the fun part, actually cutting and laying out the tile. I built the forms, framed them in copper, set the tile and grouted the mosaics. I'm amazed at how good she's gotten in the last two summers! These are easily the equal in quality of any professional mosaic artist I'm aware of.

Fish are a great subject for mosaic. The tiny tesserae (cut glass bits) give the impression of scales and the iridescent glass creates a highly realistic shimmer on the surface of these fish. When light moves across them, they look almost real.

All five are one of a kind and can be purchased through the new storefront I'm setting up on esnips. I'll still post work for sale directly on the ArtBuzz blog from time to time, but esnips makes creating the PayPal buttons a lot easier and quicker. To see larger photos or to buy one of these fish, just click the little widget buttons below and visit the esnips page.

 

       

   

 

Since each mosaic is one of a kind, I've placed PayPal buttons only on the images of the full fish, and left them off the detail images (which you can check out on my mosaic catalog page at esnips). That way, there's no risk of accidentally selling the fish twice.

If you are interested in a work which has already sold, it is possible to commission a similar work. A commissioned work will differ from the original to some degree but in the case of mosaic I can usually create a reasonably close match. The two brook trout mosaics in this gallery will give you a good idea of  what to expect in this case— they're not the same piece, but they're similar enough that it's a bit hard to tell them apart (hint: one has more brown where thetail meets the body). I can also create custom mosaics from any image you supply.

Iridescent Trout Mosaic by My Favorite Child Prodigy

Scroll down to view detail images.

 

This is my daughter Mya's first solo project in mosaic. She did an absolutely amazing job on the gradients and shading— way beyond what you'd expect from a 15 year-old, or even most professional artists.To be honest, I'm actually a little bit jealous. I'm now encouraging her to go ahead and get a degree in Classics rather than business. That way, if she can't find work I'll be able to bring her on as a full partner in the studio. Right now, her heart is set on a career in writing and/or comics. So, as soon as this piece sells, she'll be getting her very own powerbook as payment for all the great work she did here over the summer.

 

       

       

 

Most of the tile used on this mosaic is from the Iridium line of glass from Sicis. As the light or viewing angle changes, the iridescent surface of the tile closely resembles the actual scales of a live fish. The first detail photo above shows the iridescent sheen. The second pic shows the copper banding that finishes and protects the mosaic. In the third image, you can see both the normal and iridescent coloration, as well as getting a sense of Mya's amazing work on shading.

 

Brown Trout Glass Mosaic, 2005
artist/designer	Mya Smith & John T. Unger
medium	Iridescent Vitreous glass tile, Stone beads, glass eye, Hardibacker substrate, framed in copper.
size	21" x 27.5" x 1.25"
availability	Unique Piece, act quick!
price	$900.00
S&H	$60.00 UPS Ground
	Purchase item ($960 with S+H).

Shiny Happy Puppy: A Modern Take On An Ancient Mosaic

 

 

When I first saw an image of this "beware of dog" mosaic from Ancient Rome, I immediately fell in love with it. What appeals to me most is the disconnect between the warning aspect of the mosaic and the playful, happy appearance of the dog. So, last week, while Mya was working on her brown trout mosaic, I decided to recreate a version of the Cave Canem mosaic. I would have liked to use marble, but I think glass actually works better in this case, making the piece bolder and brighter.

The Roman mosaic I based it on is here. Although I worked directly from a printout of the image, there are a few things I changed. The most important change was to improve the andamento, the way rows of tesserae flow to emphasize the overall form. In the original mosaic, there were a couple areas where the tile was just filled in with no regard to the actual musculature of a dog. If you compare the flow of tile where the dog's right shoulder and rear leg meet the body, I think you'll agree that they look a little better than the original mosaic.

I had originally intended to inscribe the piece with the Latin for beware of dog, cave canem. But as I was working on the piece, I became more and more uncomfortable with that idea… for one thing, the dog isn't scary looking, which is what I like about him. He's playful. More importantly, I kind of feel like the world is far too full of warnings and dire threats these days and I just don't want to contribute to the culture of fear even on a minor level.

This is where it came in really handy to have a visiting Latin scholar. Mya is a classics geek of the first order, which is funny, really, since I on the other hand pretty much consider the dawn of time to be circa 1900. Anyway, she grabbed her Latin dictionary and we tried for a while to come up with something that would be more on the order of "good dog" or "happy puppy." Of course, going through a Latin dictionary, it becomes quickly apparent that almost all the words relate to politics, war and death. I'd forgotten what a totally militaristic world view they had, and have to admit to some surprise on finding that culture reflected so strongly in the vocabulary they had to work with. This is the kind of thing that makes being an artist so much fun really— you start out with a simple idea like recreating an ancient door mat, and by the time you're half-way through you're doing amateur cultural analysis based on how the words available to a culture influence what and how they can think. heh. (story continued below…)

 

Lupus Ludi, 2005
medium	Vitreous glass tile, Hardibacker substrate, steel frame
size	32.5" x 35.75" x .75" (frame dimensions) mosaic is 32" x 32"
availability	SOLD! Email me to inquire about commissioning a similar mosaic table or wall panel.
price	$1,800.00, Free Shipping via  FedEx Ground
	Purchase item for $1800

 

So we were a bit confounded at first. We came up with a couple possible captions, but I was making it more difficult by insisting that the new phrase should be as sweet, short, alliterative and assonant as the original. The best we could do with the dictionary was candidus catellus, which, with a stretch of the imagination can be translated as "shiny, happy puppy." Candidus is the root of our word candidate of course, and is normally translated to mean "white" (go figure). However, it can also mean shiny or happy. I figured it would be too confusing though on the whole, and besides, the letters would not have fit as well, nor did it have the proper assonance. So we put it hold for a bit and went back to cutting tile. Then Mya said something about a piece we'd heard on NPR where they were interviewing people about their relationship to the US government. One guy had said something to the effect that he really didn't care one way or the other about the war, the economy or stem cells, but he really wished that they would let him shoot the endangered wolves that were eating his cattle. And suddenly, bang, I had it. Lupus Ludi: playful wolf. Really, what I mean is "happy dog" or "playful dog," but I figure it's close enough. And it has all the linguistic aspects I wanted: short, sweet, easy to guess, alliteration and assonance.

I guess this is what happens when you lock a former poet and a classics geek in a room with a bunch of tile.