Tracy Sigler — Mona Lisa Triptych Thumbtack Mosaic in Burnt Frame
Author: Tracy Sigler | Posted: June 19th, 2006 | | Tags: Handmade, mosaic | 11 Comments »
In this piece regular thumbtacks have been used in their usual, intended way, stuck into cork bulletin boards, but with unexpected results. The Mona Lisa was used as the basis for these mosaics because it is very recognizable, as art, to most people (with money) in the industrialized world. It appears the artist’s intent is to call attention the latent, or potential beauty of mundane objects.
Each piece of the triptych uses a different zoom level, 1x, 3x and 6x. All of the panels use the same number of tacks to communicate an image. It’s possible the artist is trying to say “Context is really important” or maybe “Resolution is a funny thing.” Even though the third panel provides more detail in the face, it’s less obvious this is the Mona Lisa. The first, and coarser image with background, or full context, is more easily recognized as Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece.
The highly ornate frame is an integral part of this piece. It has been severely burned, and then stabilized using space-age polymers. Statements the artist may be making with this frame:
- Beauty in the “every day” should be recognized, appreciated, even celebrated.
- Black is beautiful.
- Maarten Baas is brilliant.
- Smoke adds flavor.
- Nothing is too good to mess with.
Some details:
- Overall dimensions (including frame): 77.5″w x 43.5″h
- Resolution of each panel: 49×76
- Total number of thumbtacks: 11,172
- Approximate weight: Very heavy
Details: burnt frame, left eye of third panel
Triptych sans frame with guitar for scale reference.
Looks great! Our compliments to “the artist.” ;-)
T,
Amazing – What would your childhood art teacher, Mrs. Winston, think? I’m sure she would be very proud. I am.
This is absolutely awesome….before seeing this I had an idea to do something like this for an English project…when I saw this picture and the other portrait made out of thumbtacks I went ahead and made a portrait myself except it was of Jimi Hendrix. It took forever but the image and the masterpiece you get at the end is priceless. It certainly is worth all the time and money it takes to make a portrait like this.
Hey Kristen. Thanks. I’m glad you like it. I’d love to see your Hendrix portrait. Post a link if you have one.
I stumbled across this page and WOW! I am amazed!!!!!!!!!!! How many hours did it take to create this? Simply stunning.
Hey Sarah. It felt like it took about ten years, but I think it was only a month of intense work.
Tracy,
I just happened upon this page, and I love the Mona Lisa.
You did a great job, and the frame is perfect for the piece. If you do more of these “paintings” I propose that you may want to consider doing some pre-raphelite, or boticelli, because I’ve (seen the process you’re doing collage or bar codes. They are usually Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix, Jeus, Elvis, etc.)Of course, you have to do images that appeal to you. And I’m not saying there is anything wrong with this, but if you want to do something different…..just trying to help.
How many of each thumbtack color did you use? I really liked this piece good job.
@ Bob, That is a good question. I really don’t know. I spray painted these in batches of a few hundred as I went along. There’s probably some way to use Photoshop to figure that out from the original files, but I have no idea how. As I mentioned the TOTAL number of tacks was 11,172.
i have been dying to do something like this. where do you get the colored tacks and how do u start?
@ Jessica, See this other post for how I did it.
http://www.weareheavyduty.com/2006/04/10/thumbtack-portrait/
I couldn’t find the volume or type of colored tacks I wanted so I actually spray painted all of these.