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GroutlineeJournalfor the Society of American Mosaic Artists Summer 2016 Vol.17 No. 2

Reflections from Our Hearts: Atelier del Mosaico de Puerto Rico • VisionShift

SAMA Mosaic Marathon 2016 • Mosaic Snapshots • A Mosaic Passover Story II

Broken Glass, Unexpected Beauty: Meagan Corrado

The Making of the New England Mosaic Society

The Art of the Whole: Textiles and Tesserae at IMA

Advice from the Past

VisionShiftAn Installation Experience

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eJournal for the Society of American Mosaic Artists TABLE OF CONTENTS 5

This article was originally

published in Groutline, the

ejournal of SAMA (Society of

American Mosaic Artists) and is

published here with permission.

www.americanmosaics.org

VisonShift began with a phone callwhile I was in my mom’s hospital room afew days before she passed away. A well-known art curator asked me if I’d beinterested in creating a mosaicinstallation for a major new sculpturewalk, currently under construction in theDallas Arts District. She mentioned thatother artists like James Surls, JesusMorales, John Henry, and others wouldhave work there. I said yes. It would bea project dedicated to my mom.

My initial visit to the construction sitewith Patricia Meadows, the artconsultant for HALL Arts, happened ona day when Dallas had a rare snow andice event. Schools were closed, nobodywent to work, and offices were closed. Itcertainly made it easy to get a parkingspace downtown. Who says mosaic artistsaren’t intrepid?

Creating a large-scale, site-specificmosaic art project requires planning frombeginning to end. It’s important toanticipate all the things that might go

VisionShift

wrong. And having a talent foradapting to changing conditions isreally helpful. Every installation hasits own set of problems. Over theyears I’ve learned when to adapt andwhen to hold steady. I start a bigproject knowing there will be

Clockwise from upper left: Initial site visit on a rare snow dayin Dallas. Assembling a smallpercentage of the materials inthe studio. Beginning thecreation of the first mosaicelement, an ‘energy burst’

The story of

a large-scale

mosaic

installationBy Sonia King

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eJournal for the Society of American Mosaic Artists TABLE OF CONTENTS 6

challenges. But VisionShiftbrought more challenges than Iever could have anticipated.

The method of assembly wasstraightforward: direct on meshover paper cartoon, the tesseraewere applied with an exteriorPVA that I brought in fromEngland. There was lots of goldused. Actually, there was lots ofeverything used. Inventorymanagement was critical,especially with over 200 differentmaterials in the project.

The mosaic elements werecreated in my small studio withthe help of my trusty assistant,Leigh Davis. There were elevenelements in three styles: energybursts, solar flares and asteroidcraters. After completion, eachelement was cut into multiplesections with lots of maskingtape register marks. Then, all thesections were loaded into plasticcrates for transport to the job site.

One of the challenges was thewindow of opportunity forinstallation. The constructionproject had pushed installationback by months already. But timehad run out as I was leaving toteach a workshop in Greece atthe beginning of June. Mayweather in Dallas can beunpredictable with storms, hailand tornados, but there was nochoice. We all hoped to be luckywith the weather.

The construction delays meantthe landscaping wasn’t in yet andthere wasn’t a place to stand or

VISIONSHIFT (CONTINUED)

Left side, top to bottom: Watching thesevere weather the night beforeinstallation began. Text received fromtrusty assistant the first morning. Carloaded with crates of mosaic sections,cement-based adhesive, grout, tools, etc.

Right side, top to bottom: Road blockedby a downed tree on the way to begin theinstall. Gusting winds as the first cartoonsare positioned on the wall. And the raingoes on and on and on.

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place a ladder next to the walls. Theincredibly supportive constructionmanager had the ‘Princess Platform’built for me. And he allowed us totake off hard hats and safety vests aslong as we stayed on the platform.

That turned out to be the least of myworries. As per my contract, therewas supposed to be a tent over thewhole installation area and storagefor all the gear and materials requiredfor a large installation. The possibilityof severe weather and high windsdidn’t allow a tent. The decision wasmade to tarp the structure, liftingthem during the day and lowering atnight. This meant all the materialswere brought up a three-story rampfrom the parking garage eachmorning and taken down at day’s

end. This included a lot of heavy stufflike bags of cement-based adhesive,grout, tools, folding tables, stepstools, mosaic sections, etc. A lot oftime and energy was spent every daygetting ready to start or closing downfor the evening.

Needless to say, I was checking theweather ALL the time. I had fourdifferent weather apps on my phone,checking radar, wind speeds, thelocations of lightening strikes, andpredictions. The morning that theinstall began my trusty assistant sentme a text that said, “I quit.” I got thesame text several times a week duringthe install. Hah!

The dramatic weather meant stoppingand taking shelter in the parkinggarage during tornado warnings andlightning storms. It meant trying toplace templates and tape the wallswhile trying to keep the wind from

VISIONSHIFT (CONTINUED)

Clockwise from upper left: Highwinds made placing the cartoons alittle tricky. Lots of taping to keep theedges crisp. Mounting the firstsection on the wall. Tape goes onand comes off the wall several timesduring the process.

“The morning that the

install began, my trusty

assistant sent me a text

that said, ‘I quit.’ I got

the same text several

times a week during the

install. Hah!”

-Sonia King

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VISIONSHIFT (CONTINUED)

“It helps to be an optimist. You

need to have nerves of steel for

these large installs. Or at least

be willing to panic in private.”

-Sonia King

Top to bottom: The installation took place during the wettest May in117 years. The landscapers added a tree 30 inches from the mosaic.After a lengthy war, Art vs. Tree…Art won!

tearing the paper cartoons. Working on the laddersin high wind meant the tarps were beating mearound the head while trying to install mosaicsections. And it meant that a seven- to ten-dayinstall took four weeks.

But we got it done with two days to spare beforeI left for Greece. I was able to take good detailshots but the overall site images would have towait for the landscaping to be installed. I thoughtI was done. I knew what landscaping was plannedand had gotten confirmation in writing that theplantings would be ground cover with amaximum growth of six inches.

But this project still had a surprise for me. Thelandscape architect needed to add a tree to fulfillthe ‘green’ requirement of the city. And hedecided to stick a large tree less than a yard fromthe mosaic. And that began the saga known as“Tree versus Art.” It went on for several nerve-wracking weeks and required going to theproject owner. Art won.

VisionShift is in an important location in the ArtsDistrict of my hometown. The response to theartwork has been really gratifying. People evensend me selfies as ‘VisionShift Angels,’ using themosaic elements as halos. I’m proud of theproject and I know my mom would have loved it.

Sonia King’s award-winning mosaic art is exhibitedinternationally and represented in private, public,and museum collections. Her mosaic, Depthfinder,is the first by an American to enter the permanentcollection of contemporary mosaic art at theMuseo d'Arte della Città di Ravenna, Italy. Sonia isa founding member and President Emeritus of theSociety of American Mosaic Artists.http://mosaicworks.com/

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“VisionShift is the only contemporary mosaic projectin the Dallas Arts District—the largest contiguousurban arts district in the nation. Eleven mosaicelements float across three sides of a structure onKPMG Plaza in the new HALL Arts complex.

The Arts District has changed the collective image ofdowntown Dallas and VisionShift expresses thepossibilities and opportunities that surround us when

one is open to seeing them. The explosive energy of thedynamic forms expresses the sense of vitality and spiritthat created the Arts District and our city. Dallas is a placethat bubbles with potential and citizens willing to takerisks to achieve great things, both on a personal, microlevel as well as a big picture, macro level. The Dallas ArtsDistrict has transformed downtown, offering new life andenergy and I hope VisionShift contributes to that vitality.”

-Sonia King

Above: The finished project at night.On left, clockwise from top left:Detail shot of an ‘energy burst’element. Sonia in front of a ‘solarflare.’ Detail of an ‘asteroid craters’mosaic element.

VISIONSHIFT (CONTINUED)