Dixie Friend Gay

Image Source: dixiefriendgay.com

Dixie Friend Gay is a visual artist who works in a variety of media, but is widely recognized for her mosaic murals. Gay became interested in mosaics during graduate school while travelling in Europe.

Friend Gay acquired an appreciation for the longevity of the materials used in mosaics after viewing ancient ruins. She frequently incorporates native flora and fauna into her images. She starts with a painting, and then creates the mural with ceramic and glass tiles, often using organic shapes and natural colors. Though her mosaics represent a specific image as a whole, they take on an abstract quality when viewed at close distance.

Friend Gay earned a B.A. in Art Education from Northwestern Oklahoma State and her M.A. from New York University. She was selected as the Texas Commission for the Arts Texas Artist of the Year in 2003. Her work is in the museum collections of the Huntington Museum of Art, W.Va., the MFA Houston and AMSET in Beaumont. Her public commissions include murals at the Texas A&M University Galveston; Dallas Love Field; Bush Intercontinental Airport Terminal B, Houston; Dane B. Fascell Port of Miami Dade; Indianapolis International Airport; The Woodlands Plaza, The Woodlands, Texas; and Mueller Park, Austin.

Art on Campus

Title: And We Waltz with Water
Year: 2018
Medium: Hand-glazed Ceramic Tiles
Location: Science and Technology Building, Lobby

Because many of the classes taught in this building relate to biology, Dixie Friend Gay chose to create an image incorporating water and air, two natural resources humankind cannot live without. This 24 by 12 foot mosaic features a sight common to Southeast Texas swamps - a body of water with lily pads and rippling reflections. Though the image may appear abstract when viewed at close distance, from the second story balcony, the scene takes on an almost photographic quality.

The process to create a mural like this is a long one. Dixie Friend Gay starts with a painting which is sent to her fabricators in Montreal several months prior to installation. The fabricators spend several weeks creating hand-glazed tiles to match the colors in the painting. The painting is photographically reproduced and enlarged to the exact size of the mural. The image is covered with a sticky, clear plastic sheet upon which the artisans cut and lay the individual pieces of tile to match the colors, shapes and patterns of the design. When all the pieces are in place and approved by Friend Gay, another clear plastic sheet is placed over the tiles to hold them in position. The entire mural is then cut into sections approximately 3’ x 2’ and placed into a container for shipping.

Dixie Friend Gay and two members of the Montreal team spent five days on campus installing the mural. They followed a “key map” and attached each of the 52 sections to the wall from right to left, bottom to top. As each row was finished and the thin set backing had dried, the outer plastic coating was removed. Once completely dried in and secured to the wall, five different colors of grout were applied to bind the individual tile pieces together.

Mural in process at the Montreal fabrication facility