Interview :: Jonathan Mandell
by Ruth Weisberg, 1 Jan 2008
Jonathan is one of the nation's leading mosaic artists. His work can be found in both homes and baseball stadiums, including Philadelphia's very own Citizen's Bank Park, in places of worship, in places of business, and in museums across the country. Jonathan's latest mosaic installation is a 10' x 6' piece of work, which is now on display at the National
Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
To see more of Jonathans' work, check out his website: www.jonathanmandell.com
Host: Ruth Weisberg; Production: Tat Communication:
Tom Thompson, Videographer; Sage Thompson, Lighting/Sound; Editing, Jessica Lloyd
PCG: What a really cool space here. So this is where you do your magic!
JM: Yes, this is the salt mines. I'm in here every day, working on pieces from
small to large.
PCG: Looking around, I see that you have some completed pieces of work, while
others are a work in progress. Give us a quick tour. What do you have going on here?
JM: I have a piece, "Gone With The Wind," featuring the classic scene
with Rhett Butler and Scarlet O'Hara. In that, I'm using ceramic tile and glass shards. I work with glass shards, which
are an interesting material. Glass shards are broken waste from hot shops where they blow glass. So you have these convex
and concave shapes, and that allows me to do research into bas relief and surface topography, so it's not a flat mosaic
anymore. And then there's a portrait of my daughter Olivia.
"I feel like a part of the city somehow, in having my work there [the National Constitution Center]. It was a tremendous honor."
PCG: Your latest mosaic is now hanging in the National Constitution Center. What
did you want to accomplish with that particular piece of work?
JM: Yeah, it's amazing. I feel like a part of the city somehow, in having my work
there. It was a tremendous honor. And my goal with that piece was to create something that was emblematic of the
Constitution Center. And that has 10 running feet of mirror on it. It's a reflection where you have the three houses of
government—the White House, the Capitol Building and the Supreme Court. And I have it set at kid height, so the kids
see themselves reflected in the government. And specifically with that, I was just there the other night showing some
friends the mosaic, and there's fingerprints and saliva and smudge marks, and you know the kids are on it, and it's
nice.
PCG: So that's actually a good sign!
JM: They're engaging the work.
PCG: You started out as a sculptor. How'd you wind up as the accidental mosaic
artist?
JM: I have a MFA from the University of Pennsylvania, which I got in 1990. I was a
sculpture student there. And then I was introduced to mosaic by a painter friend of mine. He was showing me how you can
really take the mosaic and bring it to another level. And it was like a light bulb going off, that the mosaic was the
technique work, combining the sculpture and paint and drawing all at once: grout lines were my drawing lines, the color
composition is my painterly composition, and the fabrication of the pieces and the bas relief were the sculpture
concerns.
PCG: What's the DNA of a mosaic? How do all these pieces then fit together?
JM: Well, I'm a pack rat. I collect materials—tiles, glass shards, different
semi-precious stones, metals, minerals, shells and then white-washed panel. And then I do a pencil lay-out so the
composition isn't six inches to the right. And then do the color composition rather spontaneously. I start grabbing
different materials and put this amount of blue, or this amount of yellow, and create the color composition and color
balance that I'm looking for, as it's going on.
PCG: You recently did a mosaic of the Beatles' "Sgt. Peppers." That
really meant a lot to you.
JM: What I like to do with mosaic is to push it in as many different directions as
possible. So there, I'm doing portraiture, and working with tile shards and shaping them in such tight parameters, and it
has to look like someone, so that's a real challenge. I work with grout lines as drawing lines. So, for example, the rim
of John Lennon's eyeglasses are the grout lines that imply he's wearing glasses. It was a real challenge to do, and
fun.
PCG: What's on your artistic wish list?
JM: I'd like to have my work in the Art Museum. That'd be wonderful! For me, it's a
validation, in a fine art way, of my approach in this craft medium, and trying to push it in these directions.
PCG: To see more of Jonathans' work, check out his
website: www.jonathanmandell.com. For Philly Creative Guide, I'm Ruth Weisberg. Thanks for watching.
