Project Four - Site Specific

This is my proposal for Project Number 4. It is a site specific work in my yard, in Riverside, Iowa. Folks passing by on the sidewalk will have the opportunity to follow what the sign says, or keep their heads down as they walk on by!

My idea for this project has grown throughout the semester. After having moved to a small town in Iowa, it is very apparent that even people in small towns are very busy with everyday going's on. People everywhere tend to not take the time to notice their surroundings, unless there is something that is unusual to make them stop and think about it.

I wanted something visible to a lot of people, something that was happy, and could send a good message. A message that says, just stop for a moment. I also wanted to incorporate my art (ceramics) in the project. Originally I was just going to paint the sign on wood, but I had a bunch of colored slabs that I had fired years ago and decided to use those to make a mosaic so that I could use my own pottery. It was very time intensive because I've never made a mosaic before, and I had to incorporate a lot of resources, some wood that I had leftover from recovering the roof, my circular saw, tile cutters, grout, etc. Although time intensive, I was glad that I had to make this because I had been wanting to try a mosaic for years, and just never got around to it. My original plan was to make an om mosaic, because I really enjoy yoga, but I am very glad to have used my resources to make something that will reach more people.

This was made Friday, Saturday and Sunday, November 14th - 16th, 2008 in my garage. Friday, after work, I made a trip to Menards and got the supplies I didn't have available at home (tile cutters and grout). It was very cold that weekend, and I had to run the heater which created some noise, but once I got used to that, it was a fine place to work. It took a few hours to score and break all of the ceramic slabs, and then another couple of hours to layout the design on a same-sized piece of wood as the foundation for my final mosaic. Then, after putting down a layer of grout, I could just transfer each piece of the mosaic over to the final project. After letting it sit overnight, I was able to go back and fill in the cracks with more grout. I anticipated it not taking very long to sponge off the thin layer of grout over the pieces of ceramics, but I was wrong. It ended up taking about 4 hours to do. I think it was because I had painted the ceramic slabs with underglaze and just bisque fired them, so they had a matte surface. Had I put a clear glaze over the top and had them high-fired, I believe the grout would have come off a lot easier to reveal the design. Live and learn.

Please view the video above to see the work in progress, and the final result. I'm very happy with the results.