Mr. White Creates Mosaics

Most of us look at a piece of broken tile, a pebble, or a marble and see just that, but Paul White began to see a future for this toss away garbage. His vision has become his devoted hobby as he practices one of the oldest art forms known to man, mosaics.

Existing mosaics date back over 3500 years to the region of Mesopotamia, today’s Iraq, and parts of Syria and Turkey where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers come together. Other forms of art evolved from this period of humans, but mosaics survived intact because of the use of the hard surfaces such as marble and shells.

Mr. White has been a resident of Jasper County since 2003. Before his retirement three months ago, he had been an English teacher in Fayette and Butts County for 24 years. Always a jigsaw puzzle fan, he began to use those skills learning how to use broken tiles and other mediums into designs such as that pictured. Through experimentation, he learned that hardy board was a good base for the heavy artwork.

His enthusiasm for the art form began after visiting Pasaquan, an artsy compound located near Buena Vista, Ga., created by self-educated, folk artist, Eddie Owen Martin, St. E.O.M. and the equally eccentric artist home of Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden in Summerville, Ga.

Mr. White also enjoys landscape painting and creating outdoor art from discarded pallets.