Augusto Brocca stuffs his giant mosaic lizards with messages—details about the piece and current newspapers—“to make it easy for the archeologists,” he says with a smile. This seems a good idea. Since mosaic art has already been around for more than 4,000 years, it’s likely that it will remain of interest to future art lovers.

Third millennium BC Sumerians used mosaics for architectural decoration. Greeks and Romans perfected the art form, creating patterned pebble floors and, later, detailed mosaic scenes using small marble pieces called tesserae. The Romans also sometimes used glass, but it was the early Christians and the Byzantine (323 ad–1453 ad) artisans who were skilled at decorating walls and ceilings with mosaics of colored, sparkling, reflective glass. Islamic artists also used glass, stone, and ceramics in their more abstract and geometric mosaics.

Many centuries later, Central Texas artists are bringing their own talents and techniques to this ancient art form. John and Chris Gray’s Clayworks Studio/Gallery is known for decorative architectural ceramics, and they also do custom mosaic murals. A recent project, conceived by designer Patti Riley-Brown for the pool terrace of a 2004 Symphony Showcase home, reflects the view overlooking the Colorado Narrows as it might have appeared when the land was settled as a Spanish land grant.

“The mural is executed in a technique that has roots in the American Arts and Crafts movement,” Chris Gray explained. “Henry Chapman Mercer, its best-known practitioner, developed the cut-tile mosaic technique in…Pennsylvania in the early 20th century.”

From Riley-Brown’s original sketch, Chris Levack of Levack Sculpture drafted a mural composed of shapes dictated by the scene, each piece organically representing the spirit of whatever it portrays—the tree trunk, water, etc.

Clayworks then enlarged the drawing to full size, about six by four feet, hand cut the pieces from large slabs of red terra cotta clay, and numbered them to reflect the pattern. They glazed the pieces (some—the water jug and rutted road—were left natural, to provide depth), fired and reassembled them “like a jigsaw puzzle,” set them into a concrete board, fixed it to the wall, and grouted. Marc Holm of Architectural Décor designed a frame.

Another of their cut-tile mosaics, of traditional Mexican dancers, created in 1999, is set into the floor at Plaza Saltillo, Comal and Fifth Street, in Austin. It uses natural, glazed (color on top only), and pigmented (color throughout) clay mosaic pieces.

Painter and mosaic artist Shanny Lott designs mosaics for everything from fountains to fireplaces, but especially unique are her picture frames—mosaics that continue the design and colors of her paintings. Dominating her studio when we visited was a stunning painting, created for a client’s wine room, of lush grapes nestled among brilliant purple and pink green-veined leaves, framed with a mosaic of green and purple clay tile and glass, purple agates, and brown stones.

Lott started making the mosaic frames “to cover up my framing mistakes,” she said. “The frames are more abstract…reductive. They’re like cubism, almost mathematical. It’s going to the other side of the brain and doing art there, thinking in terms of negative and positive space. The mosaics reduce the images to colors and shapes…break them into their parts, their essences.

“It’s very satisfying, because I have to completely let go. I can’t control it…I’m a control freak with paint, but I let go and open up with mosaic. It’s fun, more free.”

Lott uses a variety of tesserae. To frame a painting of a mariachi band, she used pieces of Fiesta ware plates because the vibrant colors matched those in the painting. For a painting featuring balloons, she used brightly colored wooden circles in the mosaic frame.

Much of Lott’s work is commissioned, but she also has paintings on display at Hudson’s on the Bend restaurant, which she owns with her husband, Jeff Blank.

Painter and sculptor Augusto Brocca also creates a variety of mosaic art, from tables to murals, but particularly striking when we visited his studio were the brilliantly hued larger-than-life-sized mosaic lizards.

The largest lizard, ten feet long, sat on the floor, head up and tail sinuously curled in lifelike pose, its body shimmering in a perfectly ordered geometric mosaic of bright, multi-colored glazed tile. Near it sat a smaller lizard, glorious in bright yellow, a vibrant red defining its back.

Brocca starts with a drawing, makes a steel-wire skeleton, and wraps it with chicken wire (after he fills the hollow inside with messages for future archeologists). Then, he applies one-inch thick concrete on top of the chicken wire (it takes three or four men to lift the largest lizard).

“The concrete is a critical stage,” Brocca says. “It must be even to place the mosaic…Once the whole thing is ready for the mosaic, it becomes a painting to me. What color would be beautiful next to what color?”

Brocca uses glazed clay tile, mixing his own glaze colors, as well as glass (the lizard’s eye is green glass).

Some of Brocca’s work is commissioned (Eddie V’s downtown and Arboretum restaurants display his mosaic fish), but it is also available in Austin galleries, including Artamici Fine Art Gallery.

All three of these artists create mosaics suitable for outside or inside decoration. Mosaics are a good way to add a unique artistic touch to your home or business.

Janson, H. W., and Anthony F. Janson. History of Art. 5th ed. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1997.
Tansey, Richard G., and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages. 10th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996.

For further information about the artists mentioned in this article:
Clayworks Studio/Gallery
Shanny Lott
Augusto Brocca (www.augustobrocca.com)

Additional resources for mosaic art:
Artisans at Rocky Hill
DeCola & Eudsebi
The Gallery at Paleface Crossing
Jim Rummel Art

By Alta Campbell, currently an Austin-based freelance writer and editor. Campbell, formerly founding Editor in Chief of Hoover’s, Inc., and Director of Editorial and Operations at Weissmann Travel Reports, has been involved with writing, editing, and publishing for the past 20 years.

Photos courtesy of Clayworks, Shanny Lott, and Augusto Brocca.
© 2004 Art Lover’s Guide. Inc.