John Ellsberry

Artist's Quote:

• "I'd like to think of myself as being on the cutting edge of glass mosaics. I work in glass for mosaic portraits because of the depth, dimension, surface and color that you just can't get in any other medium."
  

Info:

• Ellsberry considers his method a type of "outsider art" since his technique is truly his own invention -- which is maybe why he is careful to whom he sells. "I like the idea of selling to people I know and then I'll see it again," he says with a serious tone. "I also like the idea of having it mass-produced, such as printed on paper on the cover of a book or on a CD cover. That way it's floating around more and it's art for the masses. I've been into the idea of public art for a good portion of my life."
  

Construction facts:

• The process is very time consuming as the picture must be worked on close up, but must be constantly viewed from a distance to check for overall effect. Each piece of glass is about 1" square, most with 2 or more colors to fine tune the design. He works from photographs only, & doesn't use any computers in the process. He cuts the glass into the 1" squares and then carefully chooses each piece. Uses an acrylic adhesive to mount the glass on a large piece of plywood hat he has spray painted silver. There is no grout between the pieces of glass, the glass butts right up to each other with less than 1/32 of an inch between.