February 9, 2021 — Last year, local Utah company Intermountain Healthcare contacted Angie Halford Ré, owner of Unique Mosaics LLC in South Salt Lake, Utah to create a mosaic for them, featuring their logo and signature colors.
“They also wanted to film part of the process while I talked about and described mosaics to them,” Ré said. “My conversation about mosaic art was also a metaphor in relation to teamwork.”
Intermountain Healthcare came to Ré in 2020 just before the pandemic started with the commission, which included filming “part of the process to use for a big convention for leadership and team building for the hospital group,” Ré said.
The video was filmed at Western Art Glass, Ré’s neighbor and supplier, since Ré was in the process of moving to a new studio. “They rented the space on days when [Western Art Glass] was closed, and we worked on the filming.”
Ré narrated the video. Though she didn’t write the script, she explained things along the way as she worked, and Intermountain cinematographer/multimedia producer James Young skillfully crafted a seamless voice-over narrative that flowed out of her comments.
“They worked magic and pieced together the voice-over part from snippets of the conversation,” Ré said. “They wanted me to explain the concept of mosaics and working as a team.”
Following is the narrative from the video:
It starts with an idea. Mosaics are like a patchwork quilt. You take a bunch of small pieces and piece them together in a way that they create a bigger picture.
There’s a thought and process to starting my art. It’s definitely important to have a plan, to know where you are going to go. Each piece I use is unique, and they each have different shapes and they all fit together to work as a team, so to speak.
The unique aspect of all these pieces is what makes them so important. As a group, they become like this beautiful piece of art.
I run into challenges along the way and I enjoy finding creative solutions. It takes a lot of patience. I definitely get excited when I start seeing it come together. I never lose sight of the fact that everything needs to work together. It’s not until you step back that you can finally see the big picture.
The glass tile used was from Western Art Glass, set with LATICRETE MULTIMAX™ LITE thinset and sanded black grout from LATICRETE, with a sealer applied to enhance grout color.
Ré was challenged by coming up with an interesting background for the simple, streamlined logo.
“I wanted to add something else that didn’t take away from the logo but added some interest to the overall piece,” she said. “I decided on the abstract circles because I thought it would give the idea of cells as well be a creative background shape.”
Ré’s favorite part of the endeavor was “being a small part of something bigger than just my artwork alone,” she said. “It was a fun and different experience to be filmed through some of the process, and to explain what mosaics are to me. I am humbled to have been asked to be part of their mission in training their team members in leadership. I am so honored to be part of the whole experience,” she said.
Intermountain Healthcare will display the 24” square piece on an easel for hospital meetings and events, and use the 2-minute video in presentations, advertising, and team building seminars.
View the video at https://youtu.be/MVZ9EGQAwfQ.
Editorial Director and Senior Writer for TileLetter and TileLetter ARTISAN
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.
