In March of 2010, I submitted a proposal for the creation of eight large mosaics for the mezzanine within the east side of Jones AT&T Football stadium at Texas Tech University, my alma mater. I was pleased to be one of three finalists. I presented a formal presentation to the campus art committee in April of 2010. I was proud and excited to have been chosen as the artist for this impressive project.

The University offered eight large walls, approximately 13’ x 18’ to be embellished with football related art. As a graduate and football fan, and with the experience of my previous mosaics, I was well prepared to develop eight sports related mosaic images. Each of the images were prepared in Adobe Photoshop and this program provided my “road map” for placing 3/4” ceramic or glass tiles that make up the image. Each mosaic is made up of approximately 50 available tile colors.

Each image is built in 13” squares and labeled by column and row. Each completed mosaic is made up of approximately 200 - 13” squares and 42,000 3/4” tiles. After the image is built, we lay the image out, by column and row, in our driveway to confirm that there are no duplicate or missing squares and that “everything looks right”. After laying out the mosaics and confirming that all is well, we box up the squares and deliver them to the installer for installation. The photos below illustrate the process.

                                              

                                                                           Ribbon Cutting, Texas Tech University, September 3, 2010

On Saturday, September 3rd, Texas Tech hosted a formal ribbon cutting marking the completion of the stadium project. Tarrie Sue and I were proud to have 95 family and friends in attendance.

Thanks to Michael Strong and Norvelle Kennedy, Tech sports photographers, for allowing the use of some of their photographs for this project.