Alves’ design visualizesWisconsinfrom aerial and ground perspectives, moving from the rural to the urban. Farmfields of green flow toward the cool blue of Lake Michigan,the journey punctuated by 14 huge medallionstreasures to behold. My favorites:Three Rivers maps out ancientAmerican-Indian trails, villages and mounds; Skyline of Steeples highlights St. Josaphat, City Hall and NorthPoint Water Tower, among others; a classic MapofIndustries illustrates wherepaper towels, dairy cows and cherries rule.
Alves created theindividual ceramic images in his South Beach studio. Then he andhis wife shopped Milwaukeestores for tiles later shattered into thousands of pieces for brilliantbackground fields. “Chip it, smash it. Put it back together and give it a wholenew life,” Alves says. The shards glow in their new terrazzo settings, a galaxyof jewel-box gems.
Speakingenthusiastically by phone from Miami,Alves says he took his first ceramics class in school when he was 8 years old.“I made tacky coffee coasters that my dad sold in the Bahamas,” headds.
Following his muse, he earneda master’s in ceramics from the University of Illinois-Chicago and fell in lovewith the Midwest. “I’ve worked around theworldLondon, Hong Kong, now a firehouse in Los Angelesbut this Floridaboy always loves coming back to the Midwest,”he says. “I love your beautiful, beautiful city.”
Alves worked fivefulfilling, consuming years on the airport project before completing it whenConcourse C reopened in 2007.
Great art, it’s beensaid, focuses on the particular and the cosmic. That is true of these mosaics,I believe. With Alves’ sweeping backgrounds and foregrounds flecked witharrowheads, cogs, lighthouses, motorcycles and cheese, we voyage through Wisconsin from thespecific to the sublime. How marvelous.
Bravo Carlos Alves. Bravo Milwaukee County. Bravo Mitchell Airport.
