Y BOTHA: A Gathering Storm
This piece won the New Zealand National Contemporary Mosaic Exhibition in 2013 at Pataka Gallery in Wellington. The theme relates to the fact that many young people can no longer experience job satisfaction because they either cannot get jobs at all, or have to get casual jobs that offer very little future; even university educated people find that getting a job is not a given in the 'modern' climate of economic activity. They are becoming part of the 'price of inequality’, a result of the 'new liberal economics’ that is discredited but still prevails.
Buckle Pohutukawa
This piece is very large at 2800 mm x 1000 mm, very heavy and was a devil of a job to put up, but worth the effort. It took two months to complete and required a wooden tanalised frame screwed to site piles to enable extended stainless steel frame (80mm deep) to slot over timber, fixed with stainless steel screws; and included several screws at strategic spots interior to mosaic structure. Each interior screw has been photographed for future reference when piece will be sited elsewhere. This has been placed in a beautiful garden setting and completes the view, up a hill. The Pohutukawa trees dominate the beach area and the mosaic impressions had to be "in your face, please." Also, the upper Norfolk pine that centres the piece has been placed there because Mrs Buckle remembers her father being responsible for a now major tree on the original farm site.
Jan's Fantails
Jan commissioned this piece for an outside wall that will startle a few people. The birds are created with bas-relief system so people can touch them, hopefully without tearing themselves on shards of glass that create the body colour and depth. 500 mm x 350 mm. This is one of four commissions this person has funded.
New Life ‘Ambry’
This is the cabinet I designed to hold the Holy Oils blessed on Holy Thursday for Sacred Heart Cathedral, Hill Street, Wellington. The brass image at the back was one of two items rescued from an earlier Cathedral that was burnt down in 1894. So it had to be rescued again and placed in the new cabinet. A local cabinetmaker produced a stainless steel ambry; it includes stained glass beneath the handmade oil jars lit by LED lights, and mosaic glass tessarae around the brass image. The mosaic has several liturgical images including two crosses representing East and West of the Christian world. The centre image above the cabinet has a Maori image of the fish hook which represents new life and hope for the future. The construction of this ambry was made possible through the generosity of an anonymous donor. The grouting was aided by Wellington mosaic artist, Michael Coles. This mosaic is 1900mm x 840mm.
New Zealand Flax
This piece is 1200 mm x 1200 mm and was the third major mosaic I had attempted. When I finished the lay-up of glass and tile tessarae it looked terrible with so many black cut lines between glass and tile that I couldn’t believe it would come to anything: I was totally wrong. The grouting pulled it all together; I have loved grouting ever since. It always surprises me…and often I have really needed the surprise to believe in the pain a piece has caused me, sometimes after months work. This piece was displayed in the foyer of the Fay Richwhite building in Queen St Auckland for three years in the belief that I would be paid a rental of a verbally agreed $2000 per year. I eventually took it down. It gained considerable recognition at an Australian International Mosaic convention (AIMC). It now graces the home of my stepson in Mangawhai. It is one of my favourite pieces.
Owens’ Whakatane
I have just finished this commission for people I first met 40 years ago. More recently, they were astonished to find out some mosaic pieces they liked were done by me. They saw my pieces in a Whakatane Art Exhibition and decided to get a piece for their new apartment and put a bit of colour into it. It works very well and is a summation of the elements in the local district, some of which they see from their lounge window. 3D elements are used throughout to give depth to the river, Whale Island and the Toi Toi bank in the centre. Glass, smalti,marble,tile, stone, pebbles and local driftwood were used. It is 1900mm x 750 mm and is 80 mm deep in parts where 3D applies.
Con Kiernan
In memoriam – Con sadly passed away in 2024.
It’s taken me a long time to become a mosaic artist. I first worked in education, directing a Centre for Adult Education in Auckland but in 1983 took an 8 month sabbatical in the US to pursue a long held desire to “do art”. My style was pen and ink, of people and places, in a pointillism art form. Since then, I have spent 20 years of self-employment in graphic art. But “doing art” remained a full-time desire. And in 2001, I started this mosaic artform part-time with the development of art pieces. They have ranged from eight metres in length and 2500 mm deep to 500 mm x 350 mm depending on client requirements and this body of work now gives me a platform from which to launch new pieces, develop my mosaic art skills and earn a living. The full time plunge began in January 2003.
Why mosaic art and why New Zealand flora?… and now history? I like the “bigness” of the mosaic format; it is an ancient artform that has stood the test of time. Some of the world’s significant art sites feature mosaic art. They astonish and uplift people; they encourage a sense of history creating a link between one age and another. I have decided to treat iconic New Zealand themes in the mosaic form to capture the beauty of our country to give us a greater sense of place; and native flora has become central to this endeavour. More recently I have been working on historical themes, largely because of the history that permeates Waikino, Waihi and the Karangahake Gorge where I now live. My methods are mixed medium mosaic form. A style that has emerged recently into a bas relief form so what is often called a 3d approach, lifts out a human face or object to stress its importance to the theme of the art. I use stone, glass, tile, merge ceramics into themes, always with a permanency factor involved for outside use, avoiding anything such as MDF board that ‘blows’ and destroys tesserae. However every piece of art requires specific requirements and these have to be discovered in the process of ‘doing the job’.
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