Free Spirit, Mosaic Bear 2005 Ceramic tile over fiberglass. 36″ X 60″ x 28″ Private Collection Free Spirit was created for the 2005 fundraiser Great Northern Hunt for Bearable Art organized by The American Red Cross of Northern Lower Michigan. An anonymous donor sponsored one of the bears and specifically...
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 Most of the tile used on this mosaic is from the Iridium line of glass from Sicis. As the light or viewing angle changes,...
Rainbow Trout Glass Mosaic, 2006 Sicis Iridium glass tile, glass taxidermy eye, copper, Hardibacker substrate 9" H x 21.25" W x 1.5" 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...
Bluegill Mosaic No. 2, 2006 Sicis Iridium glass tile, glass taxidermy eye, copper. 11 x 17.5 x 1.5 in 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...
Lake Trout Mosaic, 2006 Sicis Iridium glass tile, glass taxidermy eye, copper, Hardibacker substrate. 11" H x 18.5" W x 1.5" D Private Collection 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...
Brook Trout Mosaic No. 1, 2006: Dimensions: 11" high x 19" wide x 1.5" deep. Materials: Sicis Iridium glass tile, glass taxidermy eye, copper. Mosaic is set with mortar on a Hardibacker substrate over plywood and finished around the edges with copper...
Bluegill Mosaic, 2005 Sicis Iridium glass tile, glass taxidermy eye, copper. 11" H x 17.5" W x 1.5" D...
Rainbow Trout, 2002 glass tile, glass eye, copper, Wonderboard substrate on plywood. 27.5" H x 16.5" W x 1.5" D Commission Rainbow Trout Commissioned by Jeff Ott for his office at Warner, Norcross & Judd. The iridescent glass tiles create a highly realistic shimmer on the surface of the...
Bottle Cap Mosaic Fish at Vale Craft Gallery Bottle Caps, plywood, printed tin, copper or bronze, rakes, dustpans, nail, etc. 126" H x 90" W Bottle caps have long had a place in the folk art tradition as a decorative element. Usually, they are deployed more as a texture,...
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...
Christy MacLear commissioned this piece for her gallery, Fleur Fine Art, because people kept asking her to sell the mermaid from her private collection and she couldn't bring herself to part with it. She gave me "total artistic freedom" to create any bottle cap...
La Siren With her Italian glass top and bottle cap tail, LaSiren reflects not just light but a sense of humor and playfulness. Private collection.
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What I love most about this piece is the variety of interpretations I've heard— from holding up the weight of the worlds garbage, to being crushed by alcoholism, to a desire to drink in the entire world....
One of four mosaics commissioned by Eson Chan, Art Director at Northeastern University Magazine,to illustrate an article about dolphin watching off the coast of Spain. ...
Community Harmony Through Song & Play, Panel 1: Music, 2001 Ceramic mosaic on wood substrate. 66" H x 48" W x 2" D Public Art Commission Panel 1 portrays musical styles which have been cornerstones of the African American culture and experience. The sax man probably plays jazz or...
Community Harmony Through Song & Play, Panel 2: Arts and History, 2001 Ceramic mosaic on wood substrate. 66" H x 48" W x 2" D Public Art Commission An African horn player blows his horn from the deep past, communicating with the sax man in the first panel. Behind...
Community Harmony Through Song & Play Panel 3 In the park a band plays, a man and woman dance, a child jumps to catch the notes in the air...
My neighbor across the street lives in what was once the old train station, sometime around the turn of the century. He commissioned this piece for the exterior of his home. This was actually the most difficult mosaic I've done to date....
This piece and the What Would Elvis Do? mirror were created for a show of all-Elvis art at Fleur Fine Art in Chicago....
This piece and the Elvis Is Love mirror were created for a show of all-Elvis art at Fleur Fine Art in Chicago....
When my dad was young he had a series of pet crows, all named Peter, and Peter was the hero of my bedtime stories....
Vévé for Erzuli Mosaic Table, 2003 vitreous glass, glass gems, steel table. 30" Tall x 42" x 42" Commission Laurie Beasley of Ridge Art commissioned this table, featuring a version of the Vévé for Erzulie, the Haitian goddess (Lwa) of love. My mosaic of the Vévé for Erzuli was...
This table was commissioned by Angelo at Casa Loca in Chicago. The original design is from the Mexican Loteria deck, a traditional game similar to Bingo. ...
La Femme Astrale, 1999 ceramic tile, plywood substrate. 24" x 48" x 17" high Stolen, whereabouts unknown The design for this table was adapted from a 19th Century French poster for a floating woman act.… This is one of a set of four tables I did in collaboration with...
Cocktail Girls, 1999 ceramic tile, glass, plywood substrate. 24" x 48" x 17" high Private Collection The design for this table came from an antique matchbook… Most of my early mosaics were based on old 4 color ads and posters. The limited colors of tile I was using seemed...
Ballad of the Dragon, 1999 ceramic tile, glass, plywood substrate. 24" x 48" x 17" high Commission The design for this table was adapted from a metal engraving by José Guadalupe Posada. The eye is a photo pasted behind a Xerox copier lense. Most of my early mosaics were...
The Friendly Gesture, 1999 ceramic tile, slate, plywood substrate. 24" x 48" x 17" high Private Collection The design for this table came from an antique matchbook. The tile is a mix of ceramic and porcelain. The cigars I carved from slate....
DisneyQuest Chicago: Mosaic Mural and Sculpture, 2005 Plastic rhinestone mosaic Commission...
Mud's Marker, 2001 Concrete, Ceramic tile 12.5" H x 12" W x 4" D Commission I made the headstone above for Mud, a friend's cat who had sadly used up it's allotment of nine lives. The marker has been through five long winters in Michigan with no sign of...
[rev_slider alias="LibationBottles"] All the bottles on this page were inspired by the sequined libation bottles of Haitian Vodou, a standard feature of Vodou altars traditionally used in ceremony to serve rum to the spirits. Libation bottles are often much more plain than the ceremonial flags which...
Three Billy Goats Gruff was the first drawing my daughter Mya did for our collaborative series of narrative sculptures....
Sad Bunny is a collaboration I did with my daughter Mya, one of many sculptures we did this summer using her drawings and my welding and cutting chops. ...
The house is made from an old refrigerator drawer and the rest is recycled steel plate. The wind from the wolf's mouth is copper plated welding rod. The plants are scrap left over from cutting out the flames on the Firebird Grill....
Aluminum + Copper Fish Sign, 2005 Recycled Aluminum, copper and plywood. 51" H x 96" W x 1" D This was originally going to be a sign for the studio… I got this far with it and decided that I liked it better as art. I made it...
A Mermaid and her Fish, 2006 Recycled steel, 54" H x 37" W x .25" D Collection: Jerry's Sandwiches, Chicago, IL Here's a bold, graphic sculpture made from recycled car steel… The corrugated steel in the background is not part of the piece, it's the wall of my office...
Galaxy No. 3, 2005 recycled steel 139 H x 133 W x 14 in at the base...
Galaxy No. 2, 2004 Steel 82" x 82" x 14" Collection: Kathleen Glynn & Michael Moore. The Galaxy Series of sculptures is inspired in part by David Smith's sculptures Australia and Royal Bird. But I also enjoyed the comment left by Craig...
The Galaxy Series are Modernist inspired, abstract wind vanes made from recycled steel. ...
The figures below are one-of-a-kind pieces inspired by, and built around, stone shapes that catch my eye from the cast-away pile at a local stone vendor's. Because the stone is polished on one side only, the back is decorated with copper....
Swiss Army Horse, 2000 Recycled steel, grout dimensions variable Collection: Marilyn Houlberg...
The better part of two 1/4 mile spools of wire went into making this fountain....
Cycling Salamander Windvane, a kinetic sculpture windvane commissioned in 2004...
Grasschopper Wind Vane, 2004 Steel, cast iron, copper 60" H x 40" W x 20" D Private Collection ...
These three sculptures are early examples of sculpture based on line art drawings. The Guardian sculpture is one of the few I've done which combines lines and planes....
Abstract Bull, State 11. 2005. Steel. Dimensions variable. Private Collection Picasso has had a quiet, but huge influence on my fences and sculpture. Whatever else you may choose to say about the man, he had a knack for drafting the perfect line and I've aspired to match him on that...
The Dancer Sculptures come in two styles: the steel and copper version shown here and a powder coat enamel version....
The Dancer Sculptures come in two styles: the powder coat enamel version shown here and a steel and copper version. In creating these sculptures, I try to capture the essential gesture so precisely that the mind completes the movement—making a still image appear to be in...
Houses and Weather: Scrapyard Abstract No. 8, 2006 recycled steel 14 x 10 x 3 in Although the steel in this sculpture was crushed, compacted and sheared intentionally, by a machine at the junk yard, it reminds me of what you see when heavy weather tears through a...
When I made this piece, I saw it as an animal running at full tilt, turning sharply mid-run on two legs. I love the way the tail whips around through the air and the head stretches outward, still thrust in the original direction. ...
Odysseus lashed himself to the mast of his ship to avoid being seduced by the cries of the sirens into grounding on the shoals of a reef. This sculpture suggests all the elements of that myth to me… from some angles it resembles a ship...
Arbor Vitae reminds me of music in some ways, referencing both notes on a page and sort of twining piano keys. It also makes me think of a storm, or vortex, or swirling smoke. But the breakthrough idea came when I saw it as a...
Garden Meditation Gong. 2006. Recycled steel. 85" H x 35" W x 12" D Private Collection The freestanding garden gong above would make a nice centerpiece for any garden… it requires a concrete pad below grade to stabilize it (or you could do something like a cool stonework base...
Antique Radiator Firewood Cradle, 1999 Cast iron, recycled steel. 23.5" x 22" x 8.5" Custom Order item I love the visual pun of making a cradle for holding fire wood from sections of an old radiator. This piece was originally made as a Christmas present, but I'd be into...
The gates shown here are largely created from various recycled elements. They were part of a larger project in Chicago, IL by Kenneth Morrison on which I collaborated....
Window Grilles, 2005: steel, 20.75" H x 20" W x .25" D Private Collection This pair of window grates was created from a sheet of scrap steel left over after a factory cut blanks for what might have been rotating blades for a mower. I included a larger...
E. Jones wanted burglar bars for her ground floor windows, but she didn't want to feel like she was in prison when she looked through them....
The floral pattern in these fences was designed to complement clerestory windows overlooking the courtyard where they are installed. Incorporating natural slate, iridescent glass mosaic tile and copper, this project is the culmination of techniques I have been developing over the past few years. ...
City Gates, commissioned by Bob Racky for his offices at 4022 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago, features two pairs of gates based on maps of the Chicago area. The south gates show Riverside, IL and feature urban planning by Frederic Law Olmstead in the lower left...
Having seen pictures of my Acrobat Fence, my friends Howie and JoAnn approached me to design four sections of fence to enclose a round garden at their Evanston, Illinois residence. Together, they scripted a narrative telling the story of their lives together in four...
The most interesting part of this half of the fence design (installed on Cermak, around the corner from part one) is that several of the elements are kinetic and can be moved or repositioned....
A collaboration with Kenneth Morrison. He originated the concept and sketched a rough layout for overall project. I designed and fabricated indivdual panels. The choice of which panels went together was his. It was a little like an enormous steel version of the exquisite corpse...
These graceful figures suggest both the motion of their dance and the music that moves them. The obvious joy of the figures is engaging— but their simplicity is what really captivates us. We can easily see ourselves, someone we know, or the person we might...
I was (and still am) one of those kids who always feels compelled to lean chairs back on two legs. I didn't get into making furniture just to avoid being yelled at, or breaking chairs, but I do believe that in addition to being beautiful...
The Mosaics: Music | History | Peace in the Park Contents: Credits | The Design Process | Creating the mosaics | The Youth Artists Credits Lead Artist: John Unger Assistant Artist: Caswell James Mentor: Nina Smoot-Cain With Youth Artists: Sheena Barlow, DeJuan Birge, Katheris Ellis, Ashley Harvey, Kenyetta Howard, Ernest Johnson,...
While I was in Chicago, I delivered the finished mosaic of Frank Chance that Mya and I worked on this summer. This is the second of a tryptich featuring portraits of Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers and Frank Chance. ...