An English Rose Garden Mosaic as an Urban Oasis

This commission is a good example of what my team and I can do when we are given adequate time and money for a project.

For the most part, I’ve liked or even loved most projects that I have taken on, small and large, production or art and each for different reasons. Each gives to me and asks that I give in new ways and I like that.

However, big projects that spread out over at least 6-9 months, projects that engage our expertise and challenge us to push a little further, whose subject is alive for all of us, and is adequately funded so we can immerse ourselves in the richness and detail of this one piece, these projects retain a glow in my memory and I have a special love for them.

The process itself is immeasurably rich and later in retrospect we feel all kinds of pride and accomplishment. And on top of all that, we in the studio bond deeply; we get to know each other in ways that only occur when you’ve worked together through challenges you didn’t know how to overcome, when you’ve pushed beyond exhaustion working into the wee hours for days on end and find you’re in an altered state of super-focus yet slaphappy and delirious with out reason and then celebrate the fruits of your accomplishments. A unique and special kind of connection and creative experience happens with these projects.

One such piece - and one of my favorites - was from 2007. My client’s mid-town Manhattan apartment is in the heart of an intensely noisy and concrete area of NYC that can be a challenge for the senses. Being a sensitive soul who craved a refuge, he decided to make his small powder room into a world all its own. His vision was to create an English rose garden mosaic. This concept was enough to get me started on some drawings to present.

view from the apartment

For inspiration, I began with spending some time at the various rose gardens here in Portland which happens to be the Rose City. I also found books that would inspire and inform my crew and me as we began drawing. I had 1 employee and hired 2 more. Without really realizing what I was doing, I jumped into this project with a more collaborative approach than ever before and this set the foundation for how we as a team approached every project that followed.

Over the years the creative process has become very fluid and rich- sometimes very collaborative, sometimes I know exactly what I want in advance but there’s little ego and the best ideas always take the lead.

I wish I had photos of the rose garden drawings and process but this project took place before the time when I documented my process as thoroughly as I do now. We life-size drawings of the entire mosaic that we used every step of the way. And the mosaic was in 10" sections from cutting to glazing to firing.

Before shipping the piece, we laid the drawings out on the floor and put the whole piece together for the photo below. Afterwards we numbered every small section, took it all apart, protected and packed it up in boxes for shipping to NYC.

Once on site, I unpacked the many boxes of numbered sections and put them on top of our original drawings for the tile installer. This helped him know how everything fit together and informed his decisions.

This small room was made in a semi-circle with a door that was a garden gate of sorts.

During installation

And now I'll give you a tour of the room, walking up to the room:

Once you open the "gate", here is what you see and the room looks a lot bigger than it is because of the mirror on the wall in front of you:

As you can see, the client chose a sort of bird bath-like sink and tile for the floor that has photos of grass imbedded in it!

A detail:

And another:

When leaving the room, you go back out the "gate".

In 2008 my best friend of 39 years and I sat in the room talking while she took snapshots.

A few years later I was at that apartment for a party and at one point there was a long line outside the bathroom. I took my place in the line and as I stood there I learned that more than half the people were waiting so they could see the mosaic. One woman said she lay down on the floor just to take it all in. Biggest compliment ever.

Thank you for reading, very grateful to all of you wonderful readers for your continued support of my posts! Comments and sharing welcome and appreciated.

All content, design and images are the property of Ruth Frances Greenberg and may only be used with permission.