Little did I know that my drive up the winding hairpin turns of Buena Vista Place to the home and studio of Emily Tholberg would portend the pattern of art I was about to see. The tall, slender, vivacious woman greeted me in the driveway, and I followed her to the kitchen, where my eye was immediately caught by several impressive pieces that obviously represented her artwork. Continued...
The center island was topped with a pad of earthen-toned travertine, a type of marble identified by its “pockiness,” a characteristic which enhances the variegated colors of the stone. Emily’s countertops were geometric shapes arranged in a consistent pattern around three walls of the room.
When Emily had created this over ten years ago, she used “throw-out” tiles, which consequently were not all from the same lot. But owing to Emily’s “penchant for playing with colors to work out the pattern,” the tiles deftly transitioned from cream and brown to pumpkin and green, then to other earthy shades on the far wall.
Above her stove was a beautiful slice of natural rock and above that a swirly multi-colored mural Emily had created, reminding me of a hydra--an aquatic organism I studied in high school biology. As it turns out, many of Emily’s designs are hydra-looking or ultra-swirly in nature. Continued...
“It’s the curves that make my work pretty unique.” Emily says she has a natural penchant for it, and had from the first day. She uses a band saw with a diamond tip blade. She handed to me the very first piece she ever made on that saw. Like an ornate piece from a jigsaw puzzle, it had numerous cuts with tight, curvy swirls.
“My home owners that ask me to do work for them--I know they were inspired by my unique style that I have here. I try to honor that, and go ahead and push it, and do something I’ve never done before, and see what happens.”
 Paging through her extensive portfolio, Emily showed me a design she had done for a woman in Florida. The client “gave her artistic license to make something that was fun in the sun.” So she did all these tight little swirls and “whoopdee doos,” and created figures in the scene that were anywhere from 1-1/2” to 3” high. She explained how experts in the tile world would know that the small inside cuts are pretty difficult to accomplish.
“I had a lot of fun and it made me feel like I was doing something unique, expressing and honoring Wilma’s (the client) playful ideas.”
Emily says she is “very honored to do commissions, and I do mostly commissions.” Many of her customers are home owners, both locally and around the US. But she also has completed projects for commercial customers, including her latest mural which is at Farrago’s; a compass mosaic in the lobby floor of First Southwest Bank (formerly Montezuma’s Restaurant), and one she is particularly proud of—a 40’ long, 5’ high aquatic-looking mural at Keyah Grande. She created this latter piece, which took about 5 months from start to finish, in 13 sections and installed the panels with no apparent seams. Beaming that this is a signature of her work, Emily said it took a full week to piece the seamed areas so no one could detect the joints. Continued...
In my view, Emily’s works are masterpieces of color and design. Her studio showroom reveals an expansive inventory of the materials she uses in her creations, ranging from variegated slate and beautiful granite to different types of marble (especially travertine), petrified wood, colorful semiprecious stones like malachite and onyx, agates, porcelain, glass, and millefiore—tiny slices of fused ornamental glass rods of varying colors and sizes. Often, she likes to add special little touches and will incorporate fussy fun things, like jewelry, beads, buttons, natural rock, and dichroic glass—a special glass containing multiple micro-layers of metal oxides, which result in an array of reflected colors.
I could see the passion for her work in this woman—and the energy is reflected in her product. Emily is a self-taught artist, with obvious natural talent and a great eye for color. She got her start in graphic arts in the broadcast industry during the late 70s/early 80s, just as the technology was being born.
“Over the years, I have gained more experience out of each piece and how to do it better.”
She has had good advice from tile people here and some folks on line. A few years ago she took a 6-day workshop on the basics of masonry work. She often uses magazines like ART & ARCHITECTURE for inspiration. And suppliers will often offer new materials to attract the artist who will want to play with them. Continued...
Emily Tholberg Mosaics & Murals is a one woman business. Word-of-mouth and her internet website are the main source of Emily’s commissions, but she has also used home shows to attract new customers, and tile stores provide referrals.
In these times, Emily said, she’s not getting the commissions she used to. So she is considering offering creations of her own design on her website.
“They would be smaller, more affordable, and who knows, down the road may lead to a commission. If I can do my kind of unique work on something small, then they (customers) are having a beautiful benefit, and so am I.”
Emily Tholberg Mosaics & Murals is located at 426 Buena Vista Place, Pagosa Springs, CO 81147. You can contact her by phone at 970-264-6889 or reach her at her website. |