2022 CID Awards Special Recognition Spotlight: Artistic Use of Tile

At Coverings 2022, the CID Awards honored outstanding Special Recognition projects that demonstrated spectacular craftsmanship and creativity in the use of tile & stone. This week we’re putting the spotlight on a project recognized for their artistic use of tile.

Special Recognition: Artistic Use of Tile
Natural Florida
Cherie Bosela of Luna Mosaic Arts
Bomberos Field Park, Orlando, FL

Growing up and living in Central Florida, the artist was inspired by the natural scenery. She enjoys photographing nature and using those photographs to create her mosaic artwork. This mural “Natural Florida” is a collage of photographs she took in her backyard. The Sandhill Cranes are residents in her neighborhood. She wanted to use some of her favorite native plants in the mural.

The Beautyberry bush and Spanish Needle flowers are two main native plants featured in this mural. There are other native plants, palms and trees that are not so obvious. These plants have been pressed into handmade clay tiles used in the background. See if you can find the Coontie Palm, Saw Palmetto, Southern Live Oak, and Southern Wood Fern.

This mural was created in studio on fiberglass mesh and brought to the location site and installed. The mural is 12 ft tall by 28 ft wide. It had to be created in sections due to the size of the table. Not knowing how it would all fit together till the end. During the fabrication of the mural, they decided to have the Grand Opening of the park and asked if the artist could install part of the mural, so they had part of the mural on the wall. This was a major challenge. The two ends of the mural were installed – the Beauty Berries and one of the Sandhill Cranes. Leaving the center unfinished. This made fabricating the mural more difficult. The two areas where the center meets the areas already installed had to be hand cut and fit on site. The other challenge the artist had during the install was the wildlife. There was a family of three Sandhill Cranes that would stop by daily to check on the progress of the install. One of them was very curious and would often try to steal items from the install site.

Do you have a recently completed project that features innovative design and installation of tile & stone? Consider entering it to the 2023 CID Awards – the submission portal will open this fall.