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Professor Peter Nielsen & Mosaic Artist Sandra Robertson
Mosaic Artist, Sandra Robertson was commissioned to design and fabricate 5 mosaic mural panels and collaborated with
Professor Peter Nielsen (Professor in Coastal Engineering) UQ over approximatley 2 years to bring the mosaic project to fruition.
Peter and Sandra both had other projects and fitted in meetings within their busy calendars!
This alllowed time to fabricate the murals with more than expected detail as delivery was in July 2016 for installation prior to UQ Open Day 2016.
Professor Nielsen was wonderful to work with on this project - his keen eye for detail, sense of humour, patience, passion for the project, artistic input and friendly manner was always constant.
The brief: Mosaic Art. to span the concrete wall in the hallway opposite the laboratory, where a viewing window is conveniently placed.
The initial sketch -from this overview, big mosaics grew!
It was a big effort to bring together so many engineering features as well as background fill to merge the hotspots.
I decided to shape the engineering features in white to keep them prominent in the mosaic story.
Visitors to the mural will take a while to journey through the 5 mosaic panels, in detail but at a glance one spies a penstock, a bridge, water bores, water and sewerage treatment plants etc. The whimsical support mosaic features draw one into the murals to discover, feel, wonder and "find out".
I spent hours drawing up each panel and printing out to full size.
Many edits were made along the way as the vision grew more bold.
Ideas kept coming up for more inclusions and it was a challenge to keep updating the designs and adding new sections. However, I loved every minute of it and spent many evenings researching on Google to learn more about the project. I am grateful for this as I feel much more informed and will never take water and the engineering processes for granted again!
I greatly admire the team at UQWE and am so grateful for the opportunity to stretch myself as a mosaic artist on this fabulous project.
I am glad the mural is joyful as well as educational and arty.
There is an artist's folly hidden on one of the panels, have you found it?
You will need to visit the mosaic murals to find the special piece in the mural. It's s special memento from the artist.
OzMosaics support system for construction, fabrication, multiple handling and ease of delivery/installation.
Find our more when MOSi Mosaic Online School is launched!
From penstocks to turbines, hydro electric power to mountains, from the water table to soaring eagles, from water-sking to bridges, fish to tents, dams to water processing plants, rain to drains, pipes to mining, recreation to fracking, tourism to sewerage plants and wetlands to sea....I loved every mosaic creative moment.
Wall installation: Location - UQ Advanced Engineering Building, Level 1, Water Engineering Dept.
Bright & colourful.
Showcase aspects of Water in Engineering to encourage discussion and inspiration.
The mural to provide an interesting discussion board for visitors to the Department on University, especially on UQ Open Day.
The artwork to add vibrancy to the hall and area of Level 1 of the Advanced Engineering Building.
A combination of modern mosaic art, featuring cubism, realism effects, stunning 3-D and mixed media mosaic techniques by the mosaic artist.
Mosaic substrate: 5 mosaic panels each 1.2 m wide x 2 m high, shaped from cement sheeting board.
Installation: Screw directly through the panels to the concrete wall using appropriate hardware and installation technqiue.
A builder was engaged by UQ to install the murals..
Fabrication: At Studio OzMosaics, Coorparoo, Brisbane Queensland Australia
Delivery: Murals installed on temporary "mosaic ladders" -
An OzMosaics contraption devised by Sandy to aid with moving, delivery & installation.
OzMosaics would like to thank the delivery guys for taking such care of the murals from collection at OzMosaics Studio to delivery at UQ. The murals were installed by the trademen with great efficiency! A smooth operation.
I hope many will enjoy the artworks and one day, soon, I will visit with my three grandsons and tell them the story of the making of the murals.
Thank you to the UQAE Faculty for awarding me this amazing project at UQ.