Client

Location: Rochester, NY, United States

Completion date: 2011

Artwork budget: $1,000

Project Team

Artist

Virginia Bacheler

Other

James Bareis

Overview

Chronicle the design, fabrication and installation of a 56 foot x 8 foot tile mosaic made for the City of Rochester by local artist Jill Gussow.

Goals

I wanted to create a documentary about the creative process and how this particular artist problem-solved through the nearly 3 years it took to complete.

Process

The artist was extremely generous in allowing me to visit her studio every 2 weeks to shoot as this large project progressed. The resulting documentary features the artist talking about how she interacted with her work. As time went on, the original design proved to not be as challenging as she had hoped and so she began inserting images of animals in each panel. These animal images are visible to passersby on the sidewalk but not when viewed from across the street. Jill made sure to put some of these images on the lower part of the panels so they would be visible to children passing by. She was not always pleased with the color of the tiles and so she began to mix in other colors as a painter would adjust a paint hue. For the duration of the creation of the mosaic, it was just the two of us in the studio. It was not until the installation on the wall downtown that outside contractors came into the mix.

Additional Information

This was the largest mosaic the artist had undertaken to date. It was likewise the longest project in terms of shooting time that I as a videographer/editor had undertaken as well. The viewer gets to see the artist develop her methods of efficiency in creating this work and hear her talk of how she solves problems and keeps herself focused.