Portland artist creates mosaic in CCA lobby

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The Maine Campus | The Maine Campus

The Maine Campus | The Maine Campus

The Maine Campus | The Maine Campus

Portland artist Joe Kievitt usually works with abstract ink and watercolor. Now he is the featured, commissioned mosaic artist in the University of Maine’s Collins Center for the Arts. For the past eight days — at this figure Kievitt has to double check, counting his fingers — he and three others have been tiling the distinct architectural space that will house the campus Verve Café and his mosaic.

“There are 60,000 tiles, all three-quarters of an inch by three-quarters of an inch,” said Kievitt, a soft spoken man with a distinct artistic vision. “They’re all glass tile, mortared and grouted onto the wall. [The mosaic] acts on the negative space of the untouched walls. It’s surprising; unexpected, with varying levels of interest and varying viewpoints.”  He explained that the piece is completely different depending upon the time of day and type of light under which it is viewed.

The mosaic overlooks the walkway to the CCA’s Hudson Museum and draws on many fundamental motifs found in the museum’s collection.  Characterized by strands radiating from a central orbit, the multicolored tile tapestry is currently enjoying its final touch ups before becoming the center of attention on Oct. 3 at the CCA’s grand opening gala.  Kievitt, a Maine College of Art and Parsons University graduate, based the design on a series of his own drawings from last year. He was influenced by Gretchen Faulkner, director of the Hudson Museum, and her appreciation for the cultural significance of geometric shapes — triangles, squares, rectangles and circles, in particular.

“The circle is a fundamental anthropological shape,” Faulkner said as she scrolled through photographic collections of traditional pottery, beadwork and baskets that all share Kievitt’s vision on an old desktop computer. She took him through the same virtual collection when his design was still that: a design.

“I loved his design; it worked beautifully in the space.  It’s stunning.  The scale of the piece is appropriate for the space,” Faulkner said.

Faulkner values Kievitt’s geometric, organic designs and enjoys that the work originally came from a drawing and was modified — from ink and paper to glass and mortar.

“The glass and bead aspect comes from many different cultural representations found in our collection,” Faulkner said.

The best part of the mosaic, for many of those involved, is that it is required.  Kristen Andresen, writer and editor for the University of Maine’s University Relations, explained that because of the CCA’s renovation, “According to the Maine Arts Commission (MAC), one percent of all construction and renovation costs are dedicated to commissioning or supporting already existing pieces of art.”

Kievitt added that the mosaic simultaneously meets the quota set by MAC while contributing to a higher cultural experience at the newly renovated CCA.

John Patches, the executive director of the CCA, spoke of the process involved in uniting the Verve Café and Kievitt’s mosaic. The Verve Café, located on Mill Street in downtown Orono, will operate a secondary café in the CCA.  In addition to serving smoothies, burritos and bagels from Bagel Central in Bangor, the CCA’s Verve will serve food an hour before performances. “We knew we would need a café in the new center; we kept it as one of our many focuses and we got the space,” Patches said.

Patches and his committee then concentrated on finding the right artist. Looking through applications from across the nation, Patches and the committee narrowed it down to three artists and eventually decided upon Kievitt, who had worked with an architect to establish the placement of his work.  The final proposal seemed to work for the committee; their decision was unanimous.  The issue of giving the café an identity had been resolved.

“We were very pleased,” Patches said. “It all came together, so to speak.”

In addition to Kievitt, Patches attributes much of the renovation’s success to Abe and Heather Furth, owners of Woodman’s Bar and Grill and the Verve Café, who are strong contributors to both Orono and UMaine culture.

Patches spoke excitedly of the CCA’s future and the “town-grown” relationship the center will foster between community members, the university and patrons alike.

“We want to be very relevant to society in general . . . and appeal to a wide diversity of tastes and expectations,” Patches said.

Kievitt’s artistically accessible mosaic certainly speaks to this mission statement.

The CCA enjoys its grand opening gala on Oct. 3 at 8 p.m. and will feature ’60s billboard topper Neil Sedaka.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009, 12:58 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.