'You want the community to be invested': How an Austin workshop sheds light on mosaic art

If you want to dive into the world of creating art out of just about anything, mosaic art may be just the thing.

AUSTIN (KXAN) — If you want to dive into the world of creating art out of just about anything, mosaic art may be just the thing.

In east Austin, this workshop that has provided, not only the skills but also an opportunity to learn how to make mosaic art when it was located at its previous location on East Cesar Chavez.

The Mosaic Workshop, located at 729 Airport Blvd. in east Austin, will soon again be able to provide these workshops for the community-- whether it's a team-building exercise or if you want to throw a party, said co-founder of the workshop J Muzacz.

Muzacz said the workshop plans to open in mid-February.

The community can learn the art as a beginner, intermediate or advanced artist. Additionally, you can learn to make mosaic coasters, address plates, pixel art, portraits, stepping stones and street art, according to the Mosaic Workshop website.

What is mosaic art?

Mosaic art is any artwork that is assembled with smaller pieces of something to create a larger image or pattern, Muzacz said. He said this type of art has been found in ancient civilizations made of stone, natural materials and earth.

Over time, glass technology has developed into ceramic, glazes and glass art, he said. Furthermore, Italian mosaic murals and various cultures around the world have developed their own unique style of it.

"So currently, now, we have so much great, you know, technology to be able to, like gain pigments from rare minerals and things we can make pink and red glass which, you know... couldn't make it readily in the past," Muzacz said.

He said the affinity for mosaic art comes from a recycling capability by repurposing material, like broken glass bottles, smashed aluminum cans, bottle caps and even pennies.

"Whatever material you can amass enough of, to kind of use that as your medium, you know, and, and it might just be creating textures, you know, and quarter of a hodgepodge, you know, eclectic mix. What I like to do is creating, like, you know, portraiture or you know, some kind of imagery on a large scale, but then when you go up close, you see all the little material details, and you see textures of title," Muzacz said.

He said anything can be used to make mosaic art.

"Think about, like, the original pixels, pixels, or just colored dots that, you know, even photographs, you can do digital the screen right now, it's just made up a little dust color, right? So just kind of zoom in on that or zoom out rather... you kind of see the bigger pieces, right? Anything that can be used to create that pattern or that code," he said.

Mosaic murals in Austin

In addition to hosting free, low-cost workshops, the workshop team also created community-led mosaic murals, as well as facilitated the creation of 36 and counting portraits as part of The Legends Project- a series that depicts cultural leaders across industries in "stunning mosaic public artworks," according to The Mosaic Art website.

The Legends Project honors women of color and those who have been impacted by Austin and beyond. This project is a way to shed light on these untold stories. Some of the murals cover hundreds of square feet, while others are smaller in scale and made with close attention to detail.

Public mosaic art murals can be seen down East Cesar Chavez Street.

How workshops shed light on mosaic art

As someone who has made murals and public art for 20 years, Muzacz said he first saw it as a way to repurpose material and raise awareness for environmental issues. That includes reducing the waste stream and plastics and using the earth as a canvas.

After learning some basic techniques from some mentors along the way, Muzacz said it got him thinking about ways to utilize repurposed material in his work.

Although making public art is a drawn-out and somewhat complicated process, he said the way to make that process easier is getting the community on board.

"If you're doing community work, you want the community to be invested in that work and appreciate it and you don't want to put something other people don't like. So, there's all these sort of behind-the-scenes processes that people don't maybe realize about making public work. So our workshop was meant to kind of shed a light on that. Remove the veil on how public art is even made in our city," Muzacz said.

When will The Mosaic Workshop open to the public?

Muzacz said the workshop may debut during the weekend of Feb. 17 and 18 as a community work day.

"Everybody can help out if they want, and we're gonna paint a mural on the fence and do some gardening and, you know, some kind of stuff like that," he said.

People from the community can also get a tour of the space and see what the workshop is up to. If anyone is interested in signing up for a workshop, Muzacz said a calendar will be available for people to sign up for.

"It's kind of like our soft open, I guess," he said.