Tupelo on 4th Bench
Work in Progress
2018 Safety Harbor, Florida
“Tupelo on 4th Mosaic Bench” at Tupelo on 4th Boutique and Art Studio
Design and Concept of foam bench by Melissa Haist
Design and Sculpting of foam bench by Kumpa Tawornprom
Design and concept of bench mosaics by Melissa Haist and Rochelle Schueler
Mosaic Fabrication by Rochelle Rose-Schueler of Wild Rose Artworks and Melissa Haist along with workshop students from Mamas Mosaics at Tupelo on 4th
In July 2015, I traveled to Safety Harbor, Florida, to work on a 40’ foam bench that my mosaic colleague, Melissa Haist had conceptualized. She hired her friend, Kumpa Tawornprom who is a professional large-scale industrial foam sculptor (works can be seen at Disney & Warner Brothers theme parks throughout the country) to create a curvy 40’ bench outside at Tupelo on 4th (her boutique and art studio). I spent 6 days with Kumpa to encapsulate the bench with wire and mortar to create a substrate for the mosaic.
In June 2018, I traveled back to Safety Harbor, FL to help Melissa come up with a design for the mosaic bench, to teach several workshops on creating large-scale mosaics, and to have the students contribute to covering the bench in tile. We made a good amount of progress and look forward to more sessions in the future.
