Handmade tile ceramicist and local installer community team up for Nashville Zoo Project
A handmade tile ceramicist, along with designers, creatives, NTCA member installers, and manufacturer reps, came together to support a challenging tile project at the Nashville Zoo.
Rhoda Kahler, ceramicist specializing in tile and sculpture, based in West Chester, Pa., is at the center of the project. Her organic, nature-based art has a rich, tactile energy that invites visitors to touch it. Her work has been featured in magazines, newspapers and television, the Home and Garden Television network (HGTV), Crave Magazine, and in galleries. Kahler’s large-scale handmade tile murals and ceramic-and-steel sculptures are featured in both public and private collections. These include the Delaware Art Museum, West Chester University, the Philadelphia Environmental Film Festival, and the Community Art Center. She conducts workshops nationally, participates in a wide range of Artist Residencies. Additionally, she is an adjunct faculty member at West Chester University, where she received her bachelor of fine art degree in 1995.
You cannot look for inspiration. It must find you.
– Rhoda Kahler, from her artist statement
Last spring, Kahler was contacted by Ellie Byrom-Haley, President and CCO of award-winning Gecko Group for a project at the Nashville Zoo: a new Africa exhibit. After meeting with Gecko Group, Creative Director Jill Metzger, Kahler developed a series of sketches that Gecko Group submitted to Nashville Zoo Executive Director Rick Schwartz.
Kahler was tasked with creating a handmade tile mural for a 55′ serpentine retaining wall built of concrete block and measuring from 3′ to 4′ tall. The wall greets visitors at the entrance to the Africa exhibit and will be backfilled with soil and plants. Black stucco will surround the tile mural.
The project also encompasses a 37′ circumference, 18″ tall seat bench nearby, acting as a giant planter for a tree in the center.
Working with clay
Kahler immersed herself in the study of African designs, textiles and tribal arts, which fed her unique contemporary interpretation of these elements. The mural designs – called Woven Earth – are formed by an undulating organic pattern, filled with textures, bright colors, all in an African motif.
Kahler worked for six months in her studio, creating handmade clay letters for all the signage throughout the exhibit, as well as the tiles for the bench and the mural on the undulating wall. This took several thousand pounds of wet clay.
The project required intricate math to calculate the 10% shrinkage of the clay – so the pieces would fit together like a puzzle – as well as the length of the grout lines that needed to be cut every 4″ to 6″ to accommodate the curving wall.
“Working in the studio with wet clay was my favorite part of this whole process,” Kahler said. She delighted in “adding texture, carving, and just the feel of wet clay between my fingers was absolutely sublime. I love the creativity and challenges of working in the studio.” She even embraced the idiosyncrasies of clay. “It has a memory and can warp, crack, blow up in the kiln – and it shrinks,” she added. “I sometimes compare it to taming a wild stallion. Once you figure it out and work with it, you can get it to go your way.”
Kahler had a tight schedule, with a lot of firings at high temperature, and she had to build in time to let the kiln cool for a day before she could reload. Studio assistants helped move the process along. “It was thrilling to see the colored sketch hanging on the wall finally come to life into something tangible,” she said.
Once finished, the tile was boxed up, labeled and numbered on a large template. Kahler and her husband Mike drove it from Pennsylvania to Nashville in September 2024 for the installation.
The tile for the mural patterns, was inspired by African Mud cloths – woven fabrics painted in vibrant colors using fermented mud – which are laid in the sun to create designs. Traditionally mud cloths were created by women as a cultural and spiritual tradition for centuries and worn as protection. In this rendition, Kahler’s “fabric” is the clay itself.
The village expands
Because the wall and the bench were going to be surrounded by plants, Kahler had concerns about drainage and that moisture coming from behind the structures might pop tile off the wall. So, she did a lot of research, and came across “creative tile installer extraordinaire Lee Callewaert and his wonderful wife Jane from Dragonfly Tile & Stone Works in Wisconsin,” she said.” She consulted with the Callewaerts about waterproofing and preparing the wall. “They were also key in helping me find tile installers in the Nashville area. They seemingly knew everyone in the industry.”
As it turned out, the Callewaerts were in the process of moving to Tennessee themselves, where they would be able to consult and assist onsite with the installation. They also recommended Dragonfly’s past assistant, Maria Meyer, “who had literally moved to Nashville two weeks prior to me installing and was working for Nichols Tile and Terrazzo in Nashville,” Kahler said.
All these artisan tile installers are NTCA members. The Callewaerts, along with Meyer and Alaskan artisan tile setter Joshua Nordstrom, have spent the last couple of years teaching seasoned tile installers how to create hand-shaped mosaics. This class, known as Artisans Revolution in Tile (A.R.T.), will be held again this fall in Nashville.
Another NTCA member – Dustin Rone of Rone Tile Stone LLC in nearby Mt. Pleasant – came highly recommended to install Kahler’s tile, as did Trevor Golden from Nichols.
Kahler was intent on using LATICRETE products for the installation. And these NTCA members “knew LATICRETE products inside and out,” she said. LATICRETE rep Bobby Mitchell joined the team on the advice of LATICRETE’s Manager, Digital Marketing, Sharon LaRiviere. “He was so helpful and knowledgeable about the amount of product I needed,” Kahler said. “He also looked over the site on the first day and gave us some insight before we began tiling.” After conferring, the team chose MULTIMAX™ LITE as the installation mortar.
“I love knowing that LATICRETE is supporting the arts within their craft, and I will continue to proudly use their products!” Kahler added. In addition to the MultiMax™ LITE, HYDRO BAN®, PERMACOLOR® Select Grout in several colors, STONETECH® Quartz & Porcelain Tile Sealer and LATASIL® caulk in Midnight Black were all used on the project.
Tiling commences
The installation began with the 37’ round seat bench, and after several days moved to the undulating wall.
“My tile installers, Maria and Dustin were absolutely amazing,” Kahler said. “We had a great time working together and I hope we all get to work together again someday!”
It took four weeks to complete the install, and “the Nashville zoo was so accommodating,” providing Kahler with a golf cart to get around, and a shed to store her tile and supplies.
“I have to say it was the coolest installation site I have ever had the privilege to work at,” she said. “I don’t think you can beat getting to tile beside rhinos and monkeys! I can’t wait to go back for the opening of the African exhibit in Spring of 2025.”
Kahler is filled with gratitude to LATICRETE, Lee and Jane Callewaert, the Gecko Group, the Nashville Zoo, and her installers for an “amazing experience. It was a complete joy to work with every single one of them! This is one of the things I really enjoy about doing public art – working with your community and creating something great together. I’m ready to do it again!”
Lesley Goddin has been writing and journaling since her first diary at age 11. Her journey has taken her through a career in publishing and publicity, landing her the editor position of TileLetter and its special publications in 2006. Her goal is to educate, inspire, recognize and encourage those in the tile industry -- especially the tile and stone contractor.
