Houston Bayou

1998-2002

Byzantine glass mosaic

8’ x 73’

"The mural is the singularly most distinctive art element as well as most noticed in the entire art program for Bush Intercontinental Airport". Richard Vacar, Director, Houston Airport System, 2005.

Read more about this work in ARTLIES.

Location: George Bush Intercontinental Airport, in the connector walkway from the A/B
garage into Terminal B, ground level

Client: Houston Airport System, City of Houston

Architect: Rey de la Reza Architects

Art Budget: $250,000

In public art, my approach is to fuse the constraints of the space and the needs of the client so seamlessly with my own vision that the resulting project feels as though none could have existed alone.

I approached this project with the concept of creating a complete environment that celebrates Houston’s unique bayou systems and natural beauty. Design elements are 8’x 73’ Byzantine glass mosaic mural installed on a serpentine wall, Byzantine glass wrapping 5 large adjacent columns and a terrazzo floor design that enhances the mural and echoes the bayou theme.

I worked with the architectural firm to integrate art in the space. After the initial design phase was complete, I created a painting that was 1/5th scale. The painting for the mosaic was designed so that the mosaic mural fits the wavy of the wall, coming forward in perspective as the wall moves forward, and receding with distant images as the wall flows back. As the hall opens into the rotunda, the mural is continued onto the 5 large adjacent columns. The columns are 12 feet high with a circumference of 18 feet. The image of clouds and an open misty bay wraps each one. Native flora and fauna are featured thought out the mural such as oversized hummingbirds, blue heron, damselfly, swamp iris, and palmettos.

1½ million pieces of glass were used in the mural, and fabrication alone was a yearlong process working with 4 full time artisans.

My terrazzo floor design enhances the mural by using hand broadcast patterns that evoke the banks of the bayous. There are 37 cast bronze reliefs of native creatures; lizards, turtles, frogs, fish, inserted throughout the floor.