Porcelain Tile Landscape Houses
During the winter of 2021 – 2022 I challenged myself to build two of the largest porcelain tile houses my large electric kiln would accommodate. I selected the porcelain tiles and began by cutting the pieces for each house with a diamond saw. Once the pieces were cut, I applied black China paint with broad, enthusiastically applied brush strokes, to create ‘energy lines’ on each of the four house surfaces. The tiles are then fired. These ‘energy lines’ define the spaces that the ceramic decals will then occupy. I begin with the largest decals and then fire the tiles a second time. Then I return to the ceramic decal design process and lay out the rest of the smaller decals that interact with the ‘energy lines’ and the previously applied large decals.
- 2022
A painted wooden base is prepared and after the final tile firing the tiles are siliconed together on the prepared painted wooden base. Finally a piece of aluminum is attached to the peak of the roof line. These two houses were featured in my solo exhibition at Paris Gibson Museum of Art in Great Falls, Montana in 2023 – 2024 and the ‘blind folded man’ decal on the horizontal house was featured on the cover of the catalogue for the exhibition. It is in the permanent collection of the museum.