We live in the near NW side of Oklahoma City, in a diverse, urban neighborhood of both recent immigrants and professionals, fine old houses and dilapidated flop houses, manicured lawns and homeless vagrants. Nearby is the rejuvenated - indeed thriving - Plaza District. Americans of European, African, Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern, and South Asian descent, as well as remnants of dozens of Native American nations, all live nearby.
I did not make my first mosaic until I was in my late forties. For the most part, I taught myself. Over the years I have developed a set of unique techniques and style. I have no formal art training. Much of my art is representational, yet stylized, and portrays a personal mythology of sorts. I do not recognize much of a boundary between the art I do in my
mosaics, and that in the rest of my life. One of the most creative things I do is to pick up trash on the street when I walk over to my 21st Street garden.
In 2010, I was commissioned by St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral at NW 7th and N. Robinson in Oklahoma City to do a series of seven art panels for a new columbarium as a part of the complete re-construction of their inner courtyard, which was designed by Butzer Gardner Architects. Six of the panels grace the columns of the columbarium, while the seventh, much larger panel is installed at the end of the collonade. The panels were installed in March of 2011. The six smaller panels were photographed prior to installation, and so each have several loose tesserae, where screws were later placed.
In 2009, I was commissioned to fabricate a 10' medallion commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Bethany First Church of the Nazarene in Bethany, Oklahoma. Sunni Mercer, artist and member of the church, led a team that produced the design. The medallion was fabricated using Italian smalti and gold smalti. It was installed in September, 2009.
Included in this gallery are a few shots of a backsplash completed in 2012, and some other seasonal photos taken of tiled concrete cylinders in my own front yard, a project undertaken in 2011 and still evolving.
Brooks Tower
2212 - NW 20th
Oklahoma City, OK 73107
Telephone: 405-528-0612
brookstower@hotmail.com
Sectile and not
Mosaic has lately become a hard-to-define term. Historically, it refers to works made primarily of pieces of stone or glass which have been nipped, chiseled, or cut, and then arranged in abstract or representational patterns. Works that are mosaic in appearance, but use materials other than stone, glass, ceramic, or shell, have also been called "mosaic". These rely on the broader, more generic definition of mosaic, as in a city that is a mosaic of unique neighborhoods, or a mosaic of agricultural fields. Some wonderful work has been done mixing both traditional and non-traditional materials, giving rise to the question, "What factors delineate a mosaic from an assemblage or mixed media work?" The Society of American Mosaic Artists, adopting the "big tent" approach, has so far chosen not to issue its own attempt at a definition.
Opus sectile, or "cut work" in Latin, can be described as a specific technique in mosaic that involves the cutting of stone or other materials with a blade, rather than nipping or chipping the stuff with nippers or hammer and hardie. Actually it may be a whole separate craft, because its main similarity to other mosaic is the materials it uses; the techniques are pretty different.
Just about everything you see in the two detail photos of my work on this page were cut with a regular Felker wet saw. Other works, such as via were cut with a diamond band saw. Nippers, on the other hand, were the only tool used to cut the Italian smalti (enamel impregnated glass) in this detail shot of a commissioned work for a church.
Written and not
I tend to ignore artists' statements when I visit a gallery or website. Many are tiresome and overblown. Others are filled with the latest buzzwords and shibboleths gleaned from art publications - artspeak. If reading the statement is required to understand, enjoy, somehow appreciate the work, then I tend to think that the art itself is deficient. By "art itself" I mean the thing hanging on the wall.
In much of "art" over the past five or six decades, text and context have supplanted visual experience. Concept has supplanted technique and skill - indeed the artist's hand need not even be involved. I have held onto a forlorn hope that contemporary mosaic might prove to be a sort of last bastion against these trends - a sort of anti modern/post-modern/post-art art. High skill, and prolonged and obsessive attention to detail, are requisite to fine mosaic.
This is a wall of statements in our house - various notes, letters, lyrics, lists, and warnings that we have picked up off the streets and sidewalks over the past 20 years. It is not a conceptual wall.
News, if there is any,...
I delivered the keynote address at the 2015 Contemporary Mosaic Arts Summit, being held in Ashland, Oregon, Oct 1-4, 2015. The topic was "Philosophical Conundrums in the Practice of Mosaic", which was sufficiently vague to allow all manner of incoherent ruminations. Several of my works are also in the exhibition.
An on-line version of that talk has been uploaded to Tumblr, which can be accessed here.
My work, "Across the wide Missouri", has been accepted for the 2015 Mosaic Arts International- this year in Philadelphia - sponsored by the Society of American Mosaic Artists.
The January 2015 issue of the French magazine Mosaique Magazine has a short essay written by me, accompanied by a retrospective of some of my work.
My work, "the valley", was awarded the Award for Technical Distinction at the 2014 Mosaic Arts International- held in Houston - sponsored by the Society of American Mosaic Artists.
In the spring of 2014, I was commissioned to design and fabricate an exterior floor medallion as the focal point of a brick labyrinth for the Oklahoma City YWCA's Battered Women's Shelter. Here is link to an article and video about the project.
The beautiful, new Hardesty Arts Center in Tulsa hosted a joint exhibition of Jacqueline Iskander's and my work March 14 through May 3, 2014.
At that same time, several of my works were included in "Shattering Expectations" - a joint exhibition juried by Nancie Mills Pipgras, who runs the influential web site Mosaic Art Now. The exhibition ran March 7 through April 20, 2014, at Isaiah Zagar's Magic Gardens in Philadelphia. It was sponsored by the Magic Gardens and the Mosaic Society of Philadelphia.
Commissioned architectural works:
3' exterior medallion centerpiece to a brick labyrinth at the YWCA Battered Women's Shelter, Oklahoma City
Bethany First Church of the Nazarene’s 100th anniversary, 10’ medallion, fabricated with Italian smalti, designed by Sunni Mercer, Bethany, Oklahoma, completed fall, 2009
St Pauls Episcopal Cathedral, NW 7th and Robinson, Oklahoma City: Seven panels, one approximately 6’ x 8’, for a courtyard columbarium, which was designed by Butzer Gardner Architects. Completed February, 2011.
Selected exhibitions, awards and galleries:
2015
My work, Across the wide Missouri has been juried into the 2015 Mosaic Arts International, held this year in Philadelphia.
2014
Award for Technical Distinction, 2014 Mosaic Arts International, my accepted piece, the valley, Apr-May, Williams Tower, Houston, TX
One of eight showcased artists, Shattering Expectations, juried by Nancie Mills Pipgras, Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, Mar-Apr
Art in Mosaic, a joint exhibition with Jacqueline Iskander, Hardesty Arts Center, Tulsa, OK Mar-May
2013
Solo exhibition, JRB Art at the Elms, Oklahoma City, May
My work "via" wins a juror prize at the 2013 Mosaic Arts International, at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington
2012
Hard Edge: Twelve Years in stone, porcelain, and glass, Leslie Powell Gallery, Lawton, Oklahoma, Jan-Mar
14th Biennial Oklahoma Centerfold 2012 National Juried Art Exhibition, my accepted piece: via, Leslie Powell Gallery, Lawton, Oklahoma, Nov - Dec
2011
Mosaic Arts International Exhibition, juried exhibition by the Society of American Mosaic Artists, Austin, TX, April,my piece: sub lingua
Oklahoma Friendly, Oklahoma Art Guild juried exhibition, IAO Gallery, Oklahoma City, March-April
National Mosaic Exhibition on Cape Cod, juried exhibition, Falmouth, MA, July - Sept
Collaborating artist, assisting Canadian artist Gerry Lavery with his outstanding Yonge Street church mural, City of Toronto, Canada
2009
UK/OK: Exploring Traditions in Contemporary Design, Price Tower Arts Center, Bartlesville, OK, Aug – Dec
Cutting Edges: Contemporary Mosaic Art, Lake Oswego, OR, June
The Sum of all Parts, juried exhibition, Bathhouse CulturalCenter, Dallas, Mar
Oklahoma Visual Artists Coalition juried biennial Visionmakers Exhibition, April
2008
Mosaic Arts International Exhibition, juried exhibit by the Society of American Mosaic Artists, Miami, FL, April
An Ancient Language – A Modern Translation, Garland, TX, Sept
Best 2-D for The Clearing, Inspired by...Contemporary Mosaics and the Historical Tradition: A juried Invitational Exhibition of Mosaic Art, Fredericksburg, VA, Oct
2007
The Sum of all Parts, juried exhibition, Hillsboro, OR
Breakout, British Association For Modern Mosaic juried exhibition, Bilston Gallery, Wolverhampton, England – one of eight international invited mosaicists. My piece Sunburger featured on banner
Best of Show for Marketday (II), Mosaic Arts International, Mesa, AZ, the annual international juried exhibition by the Society of American Mosaic Artists
JRB Art at the Elms solo exhibition, Oklahoma City, OK
2006
Bits and Pieces, juried exhibition, Studio 2600, Dallas, TX
JRB Art at the Elms solo exhibition, Oklahoma City, OK
Society of American Mosaic Artists 2006 National Exhibition, High Risk Gallery, Chicago
OVAC VisionMakers Biennial Exhibition, Powell Gallery, Lawton, Ok
LiT Gallery and Bar, Oklahoma City: curator of Fractured Lit, an exhibition of 18 North American mosaicists
2005 and earlier
JRB Art at the Elms, group exhibition, Function as Art
My Atlantis, National Juried Exhibition, San Francisco, CA
Visual Arts Alliance, National Juried Exhibition, Houston, TX
Oklahoma Watercolor Mixed Media Competition, Oklahoma City University, Equal Merit Award
Touchstone Gallery, 2005 National Juried Exhibition, Wash., D.C., Honorable Mention
The Atelier, Miami, FL: National Juried Mosaic Exhibition, Dec 2004, 2005
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