Mesquite Fire Station #4: In progress

6/13/2021 UPDATE: The mosaic is complete! We carefully packed the sections and I drove back to Dallas to lay it out on the studio floor for the first time. I’ve added signatures (John Wehle’s and mine). Now we just have to work against the heat and intense sunlight to install it on the exterior vertical wall of Station #4. Installation will take place Wednesday, June 15th - June 21. Pics to follow.

Laying out each section to test the fit. Photo by Mark Lefkin.

Limited table space in my Taos studio meant I was only able to see the result of a year’s work by bringing the mosaic to the Dallas studio. First time viewing the completed mosaic! Photo by Mark Lefkin.

It’s slow going, especially since the project is in Taos at the garage studio. Two weeks there, two weeks in Dallas. Rinse off the desert dust and repeat. We had to stop temporarily to complete a time-sensitive project in Fort Worth, but soon we’ll be back in the studio to complete the final sections. I’d say we are 75+ percent complete.

While awaiting helmet revisions on the front firefighter, I decided to finish the fire in the grass. Now, all 7 pieces across the bottom are complete. Not all would fit on the table.

We had to make an adjustment to the helmet style of the yellow front helmet. Here is the new version, whose pattern will be spliced into the existing one.

Fun with reds! I’ve started incorporating some MVM Mexican smalti into the mix, because it’s giving me some reds I don’t have in the Italian palette.

As the finished sections get taller (I’m one panel away from the full 12-foot height), it’s harder to photograph.

The sky is a wonderful mix of smoke, flames and movement.

It’s getting too large to fit on the work tables!

On the work table now:

Here’s the current long-term project, which will be installed on the façade of a local fire station. The image, designed in cooperation with and painted by Texas native and current CA resident John Wehrle, features two fire fighters, dynamically fighting the flames that rise behind the station’s logo. Here’s a sneak peek.

I love this painting, created by John Wehrle of Trout in Hand Studio.

The fire fighters’ knees, emerging from the tall grass.

We’re using vintage Italian smalti, which I purchased from a historic collection once owned by California mosaic muralist, Millard Sheets. The colors are rich and so varied. We have our choice of over 500 unique colors to create this mosaic (if we so choose!).

This is how far we’ve come after a month of diligent work. The paper-faced method means we create the pattern in reverse on heavy duty paper, then apply the tesserae with a water-soluble glue. The final mosaic will be 12 x 12 feet. We divided the pattern vertically and horizontally in a puzzle-like grid. There are 49 sections.