Dedicated to my husband, Maris Strautmanis. His help and love make all things possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mosaic, cast bronze, concrete, glass, iron, 15'4" x 14'8" x 5'8", 2001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living Room was designed and constructed over two years, from 1999 to 2001. All of the furniture was cast from life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mosaic Carpet

The underlying pattern was inspired by the landscape around Gresham, the sky, the earth, the berries and mountains. The outlying ring pattern is based on the twined baskets of the Wasco-Wishxam tribes of the Columbia Gorge. Inset throughout are designs by eight students from Mt. Hood Community College, drawn from their culture, from their background and their experience of living in the shadow of Mt. Hood.

 

 

 

The mosaic carpet consists of 65,000 mosaic tiles, pieced by over 60 volunteers from the community.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Forest - Margaret Kuhn (mosaic consultant)

 

I was first introduced to the mosaic medium when I was hired to replicate Arts and Crafts era mosaic in several New York City subway stations. I was drawn to the complexity of the surface, the color and the history of the mosaics. I then went on to establish a mosaic studio for a Portland tile manufacturer, where I was able to explore the medium through many different compositions and applications. I like to use an interplay of color and texture to create motion and to highlight the beauty of the stone and glazed surfaces. One day in the beautiful Oregon woods, I saw the great Douglas Firs forming a kind of natural cathedral, with arching branches above me instead of stone. I thought of my German ancestry when creating this mosaic. In this piece we are looking out from deep forest, through the trees at the edge, that are purposely ordered to create a cathedral-like architecture. The berry vines remind me of the German woodcarving that my great-grandfather may have done for his church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jazz - Margaret Kuhn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Berries - Hiromi Imagawa - Pieced by Jim Davis

Mt. Hood - Alima Zepeda-Olsen

Columbia River - Maritza Kristina Munar Antonio

Wind - Jay Meer

 

 

 

Hiromi Imagawa grew up in Japan. She studied Art at Mt. Hood Community College and is currently working for Universal Studios in Japan. She writes: It is great to be surrounded by fresh and clean air. It is great that we have one of the cutest fruits, which is berries, as one of the main products of Gresham. It must be great for farmers to see such a beautiful mountain covered with snow during their work. I am hoping we will be able to keep this for future generations. Jim Davis met Hiromi while they both were taking jewelry courses at Mt. Hood Community College. He began studying Art in 1994, as a student at Oregon College of Arts and Crafts. There, Jim was greatly stimulated by instructor Bill Will. He fell in love with sculpture while taking metal sculpture courses at Mt. Hood Community College with Tamsie Ringler. He found the Tri-Met mosaic project to be a great experience, it was inspirational to broaden his skills and work with the community. Jim continues to work in jewelry and other media, and in his words, to learn the grammar of Art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Circuitry - Kat Hanneck

 

 

Jay Meer: Burnsider, Portlander ,Canova , Seidler, a spray paint airbrush artist originally from Wichita, Kansas. I migrated to Modesto, California, then to Government Camp, Oregon. With amazing skate parks and people, Oregon is a place I love to represent and call home. I am a freelance artist capable of almost anything from large-scale murals, to video, photography, animation and computer graphics. I also work in sculpture. My work can be found at Burnside Skatepark, the Red Sea reggae nightclub, and all over town, from businesses to private residences, and of course the underground scene. My art has also been in skateboarding and snowboarding videos and magazines. Thank you and a big thanks to Tamsie for the opportunity to work on and be a part of this project. The theme for my section of the mosaic was Wind. From living on Mt. Hood I came to appreciate the Mountain and its hills and valleys. I originally came to Mt. Hood on a month long snowboard trip and liked it so much I stayed. In my section, there is a snowboarder riding across the hills, at one with nature. There are also some semi-hidden things. The clouds in the sky say OREGON. JAYMEER DSM is in the trees. DSM stands for DA SKILLS MANIFEST/ DESTINY SHALL MANIFEST. This is a crew of artists and friends that work together all over the West Coast. Across the hills is 2000, the year of the mosaic completion, a monumental year and the millennium, the time that we live in. Hopefully this mosaic will last as long as the ones in Pompeii, carrying on stories with insight into greater meanings.

Family - Lyuba Pekisheva

 

 

I was born in Astrakhan, Russia in 1979 and managed to grow up without a set cultural identity. My mom and I came to the US in 1991. I was excited to come here though it meant leaving the rest of my family and almost everything else I knew. I'm an only child, my parents divorced when I was four but I have grandparents, aunts and cousins to whom I'm very close and none of them are coming to America. I recovered three years later; moved to Portland from Kansas City in 1994, graduated from Milwaukie High and since I've always been interested in art, majored in Art at Mt. Hood Community College. Four and a half years later I've graduated from Portland State University with a BA in painting/ drawing/ printmaking and have the rest of my life ahead of me. In my part of the mosaic I had to express the complexity of the family without having any one specific message. It's very fascinating how people in different stages of development, often looking for different things in life, have to get to know each other over a long period of time and go through transformations in each other's presence. The design of the mosaic is to bring to mind the different forces we feel from inside and outside that pull us apart or work to unite us, the multitude of ways we respond to them, how beautiful it is when we manage to find the time and energy to understand each other, how destructive it is when we don't and how fluidly harmony and destructiveness can change into one another.

 

 

 

 

Bassman Leroy Vinegar, who passed away just before we began the mosaic, was a vital and seminal jazz musician here in Portland. I wanted to pay tribute to him and others who play with skill and soul. I have roots, through my mother, to Louisiana. In this piece I wanted to evoke some of the spirit of that place which gave birth to jazz: storytelling, poetic expression and a kind of direct spirituality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico in 1972. I grew up in New Mexico and lived in England, Australia and Japan prior to settling here in Portland. Originally I had planned on studying ethnobotany, which led me to work with the Biosphere Project in Arizona. Eventually I realized my true passion in life was art. As with most pursuits in my life, I am mainly self-taught, although I have enjoyed learning from classes at Mt. Hood Community College and from working with other artists in the Portland area. I've been fascinated by pattern, color and light since I was a child, and believe that artists guide how human beings visually interpret reality. My design for electronics came from the intricate pattern in a small section of a circuit board that I enlarged. I have really enjoyed being a part of this project with such fabulous artists and Tamsie is a great inspiration to me.

 

 

Alima Zepeda was born in Mexico City. She studied acting at the National University of Mexico City, and played theatre for twenty-two years in Mexico. Working for some of the main avant-garde directors, and also for the National Company of Mexico City, she traveled all over the Mexican Republic, the United States, and Europe. Alima was acting with Actores del Metode Mexican Actors Studios when they won the Rockefeller Grant Award. She married an Oregonian and moved to Portland in 1993. She was a member of Miracle Theatre's acting company for three years. After studying Art at Mt. Hood Community College, she is now making ceramic sculpture and painting. She is also involved in the healing arts, and has studied holistic massage, polarity and quantum touch. She is a 3rd degree Reiki practitioner.This image represents some of the main magical powers of Nature's elements at work in Gresham, the sun, the moon, the rain, the forests, and the dormant volcano that is Mt. Hood.

 

Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, Maritza Kristina Munar Antonio is a devoted artist who explores all aspects of art. She graduated from Mira Mesa High School in San Diego, California. There, she took her first art class, which gave her her first focus in life. It triggered her ongoing dedication, appreciation and passion towards all things that touch art. Living Room is her first work in mosaic. My idea was to show water in an abstract way. Seen as soft, smooth, fluid, I tried to present it in other ways. Hard, angular, rigid, and yet still water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mosaic Volunteers (L), On couch: Margaret Kuhn, Kat Hanneck, Alima Zepeda, Tamsie Ringler, Standing: Lyuba Pekisheva, Maritza Antonio, Jay Meer (C), Tiling: Jim Davis (R)

Contributors

Ann Sacks Tile and Stone, Gresham Parks and Recreation, Miller Paint, Mt. Hood Community College, Karin and Richard Ringler, Starseed Foundation, Tri-Met Regional Transit Agency, Troutdale Sand and Gravel

Mosaic Volunteers

John Acarregui, Austin Carley, Ben and Jane Chase, Madison, Spencer, David and Linda Clark, Ron Connor, Michelle deAngio, Anna Downing, Jen and Nancy Gaudette, Joel Green, Carrin Huff, Phuong Huynh, Ruth Jackson, Jane Johnson, Loretta Kerr, Joan Lamirande, Jessica Lenchitsky, Kaye and Casey Levy, Jeremy Martinez, Susan McCormick, Kim McKenna, Jack McMahon, Carole and Hannah Miles, Kristin, Brian and Barbara Davidson, Miller Ashton and Nichelle Moore, Becky and Jessica Orn, Krista Richey, Emanuel Rodriguez, Penny Roth, Chris and Kay Struckman, Angi Vandenbos, Sadie Wood, Jan Shelley, Lilia Xochihua and Alden Lewis

Special Thanks to: Margaret Kuhn, Bernadette Rainsford, Rhue Brueggeman, Cathy Sherick, Georganne Watters and MHCC colleagues, Mary Priester and Tri-Met Art Advisory Committee, And many others.