Oct. 24, 2001
Contact:Kathy DetersSenior Information Specialist(573) 882-9144[email protected]
MATH, SCIENCE SKILLS ADD UP TO EYECATCHING ART
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- How many glass tiles does it take to get to the center of a 30-foot-diameter tiger mosaic? Artist Paul Jackson knows.
Jackson, a world-renowned watercolor artist and graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia, decided to turn one of his small watercolor paintings into a large mosaic that students, faculty and visitors to the MU campus could enjoy for generations to come. "Tiger Spot," one of his original watercolor paintings, was a perfect choice because it depicted the face of a Bengal tiger, MU's mascot.
Jackson's original watercolor painting was complex, containing more than 1,000 colors. Unfortunately, it wasn't practical to try to order glass mosaic tiles in that many colors. Jackson sought the help of a graduate student in MU's College of Engineering. Using a computer program, the student was able to analyze the number of colors in the watercolor painting and then break them down into 44 colors that could be used for the mosaic. The computer program also showed the percentage of each color needed. For Jackson, the next step was to create a guide that he, as well as the community volunteers and MU art students who would be helping with the project, could follow.
"I hand-sketched the tiger as a sort of 'paint-by-number' tile-laying guide," Jackson explained. "To do that, I enlarged it from a 22-inch diameter painting to a 30-foot-diameter sketch."
Jackson then divided the sketch into 201, 2-foot-square sections to be used as tile-laying guides. Because Jackson wanted the mosaic to replicate those created in the Byzantine era in the fifth century, he decided to use Orsoni glass. This type of glass is dense, difficult to break and has a special shine to it not often found in other glass tiles. Ordering this special glass required him to travel to Venice, Italy. However, before boarding a plane to Italy, Jackson first had to use his math skills to determine how many glass tiles the project would require.
Using what he had learned in algebra, Jackson knew that he could use a formula to determine the square feet contained in a circle. Using this formula, Jackson discovered that there were 706.85 square feet in a circle measuring 30 feet in diameter. He also knew that 1 kilogram of tile fills one square foot of space in the circular mosaic, so based on that information, it would appear that the project would require 706.85 kilograms of tiles. However, as anyone who has ever completed a three-part word problem on a math exam can tell you, the solution wasn't that simple.
In determining how many tiles to order, Jackson also had to consider the effect grout would have on the space to be filled. Grout is a substance used to hold the tiles together, and to hold them to the concrete pads. The width of the grout would affect how many tiles would be used.
Jackson determined that it would take 2,000 tiles to fill a 2-foot square with tiles if there was no space left between the tiles. The tiles are three-eighths of an inch wide by five-eighths of an inch long. However, the tiles would have to be spaced one-sixteenth of an inch apart to allow room for the grout.
Using this information, Jackson determined how many tiles would be required to fill a 2-foot square, taking into account the space the grout would use. Jackson now knew how many tiles the entire project would require. However, having studied the use of glass tiles in mosaics, Jackson knew that not all the tiles the company provided would be usable. In the glass firing process, parts of the glass form bubbles that burst and create holes.
To determine the percentage of unusable tiles per color, Jackson's method was relatively simple: He took a random sampling by picking up a large handful of the tiles and dumping it out. Although this method might not have been quite as scientific as the rest of the process, using this information, Jackson decided that he would need to order about 42 percent more tile than what the project actually required to compensate for the unusable tiles.
"One good handful of yellow tiles -- about 100 tiles -- yielded 42 waste pieces," Jackson said.
Now, less than one year after completing this complex list of equations and traveling to Italy to order glass tiles, Jackson's project is complete and greets visitors to MU's main library. As visiting school children helped lay the final tiles, most probably focused on the smoothness of the glass and the way the pieces fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. Perhaps some were drawn to the sparkling eyes, which were created using tiles inlaid with gold leaf. When Jackson looks at "Tiger Spot," he will no doubt see the realization of a two-year-long dream, a dream that produced the world's largest single-image mosaic.
However, when MU math and engineering professors sit down next to it to enjoy their lunch on crisp autumn afternoons, they will see the answer to an age-old question posed by generations of math, algebra and geometry students: When are we ever going to use this stuff?
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Photos of students working on the project and the completed mosaic are available on the MU News Bureau Web site at http://www.missouri.edu/~news/tigerspot.html.
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