potrero view
Photograph by Rebecca Ford

Photograph by Rebecca Ford

Thompson’s work at McEvoy Ranch in Petaluma.

August 2010

Business Blooms for Potrero Hill Mosaic Artist

By Lori Higa

In the cluttered warren of rooms that’s the Archetile Mosaics studio, in a funky Victorian at the corner of 18th and Tennessee streets, artist Karen Thompson explained the origins of her collection of vintage vitreous tiles, displayed in glass jars on a crowded bookcase.  “They were offered to me from the estate of a woman who made mosaics in the ‘50s,” said the artist, “and I snapped them up.”

Originally from Massachusetts, Thompson came to the City in 1977 to study art, ceramics and textiles at San Francisco State University.  She and husband Tom moved to the Hill in 1983.  After studio-hopping in Potrero Hill, Dogpatch and the Mission, she landed in her current location, where she’s been for five years.  Before launching her custom architectural mosaics and tile business in 1987, Thompson was a clothing designer with a line of women’s ready-to-wear art.  She “stopped doing fashion after it wasn’t fun anymore.  I started playing around with, and taught myself mosaics.”

At that time few artists were making mosaics, Thompson recalled. “Now, there are mosaics being created by artists as well as commercial factory production internationally.  Today there are even schools dedicated to instruction in mosaic arts as well as volumes of how-to and inspirational books and websites galore!”

Thompson’s work reflects fine detail and highly complex designs inspired by antique florilegium, classical architecture, mythology, religion and fantasy, combined with a “treasure chest” of materials, including travertine, Italian colored glass, beads and semiprecious stones, such as agate, lapis, and tiger’s eye.  Thompson’s portfolio reveals many examples of astonishing old world craftsmanship and virtuosity.  “As a mosaic artist, Karen stands alone,” said Jeremy Ongania of Onga Stone & Tile, who lives on Rhode Island Street.  Ongania worked with Thompson on installing several projects, including one at McEvoy Olive Oil Ranch.   “I’m not the type who normally gives compliments,” he said, “But what Karen does is amazing, beyond everything, in a category of her own.”

Dogpatch-based architect and interior designer Nestor Matthews, whose studio is on 23rd and Indiana streets, invited Thompson to create a series of niches for a client’s Napa home.  “Karen brought a playfulness to the project which was site-specific and featured local flora and fauna,” Matthews related.  “She researched the native plants and wildlife and incorporated snakes, bees, butterflies, yellow jackets, lizards and flowers into the work,” he said. “Karen is smart, creative and dedicated to making things work for her clients.  I really appreciate the care she brings to a project.”  Not only is Thompson’s work “of the highest quality,” Ongania added, “but she is easy to work with, respects others and will do whatever it takes to make sure her clients are completely satisfied.”

Though most of Thompson’s commissions are high-end residential installations, from water fountains to kitchens, she’s installed a number of impressive large-scale public projects.  For Nancy Oakes’ Boulevard restaurant in South Beach, Thompson created an alluring period environment featuring shimmering art nouveau motifs, from outdoor signage to windows and flooring, including a magnificent peacock embedded underfoot. Her work can also be seen at the Hotel Triton and the Grand Café.   In 2009, Thompson created a mosaic heart sculpture for San Francisco General Hospital Foundation’s Heroes + Hearts fundraiser that delighted many with its three-dimensional butterfly accents.  

Thompson’s breathtaking artistry graces Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma in a series of mosaic panels featuring the Virgin Mary, the Jesus child, angels and doves, done in a style reminiscent of Orthodox iconography.  Another stunning Thompson creation is located in an outdoor garden at McEvoy Ranch in Petaluma:  a large, circular patio “carpet” of Chinese pebbles.  The mosaic is a modern interpretation of a traditional Chinese design, and incorporates Spanish roof tiles, filled in with a terra cotta-colored Indian slate.  For local musicians Moonalice – formerly the Flying Other Brothers – Thompson created a wonderland of 1960s psychedelia tile work in their secluded Woodside recording studio, incorporating nods to renowned rock ‘n’ roll poster artist Rick Griffin’s signature “eyeball” art.

A “serious” gardener at home, which is a “tiny earthquake cottage” at 19th and DeHaro streets, Thompson enjoys working with images from nature.  She finds special inspiration in the antique botanical art prints known as florilegium.  According to Thompson, these trace their roots back to the days before cameras and photography, when royalty and aristocracy inventoried their wealth by hiring artists to paint and draw all the plants and flowers in their gardens.  Thompson pays homage to their subtle aesthetics with scientific accuracy, recreating her own florilegium in painstaking detail for custom mosaics.  Thompson’s creativity extends to inventing new techniques, such as laminating beads into solid tile pieces that project a luminous, diaphanous quality.  

Helping Thompson for the past 12 years is Mary Grae, who is leaving this month to return to college.   In addition, Thompson’s husband works full-time by her side, providing support, “and doing a lot of stuff I don’t like to do,” she commented with a smile.  Hailing from Rochester, NY,  Tom has a degree in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley.  “He wears many hats at Archetile...from doing a lot of the pattern drafting, stone and glass cutting, running shipping, sanitation and maintenance departments, as well as installation work and being the on-site chef.  Invaluable services all!”

Thompson’s next commission is for a garden in Carmel with a Lord of the Rings-inspired theme on which she’ll labor for the next six to eight months.  

For more information: www.archetile.com; 355.1594.

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