Artist Statement:

Special Announcement! On August 4, 2007, at the "Gold Coast Art Fair" in downtown Chicago, Ray won the "Best of Classification" award for 3-D functional art Click here for picture

Like most artists, I've always had an underlying drive to create. From my earliest memory I was drawing in perspective and using light and shadow. Sometimes my creative need seems more curse than gift, since it exposes my inner thoughts for all to see and question.

Natural or crafted, design is everywhere. It is the basis for most art, and balance within that design is the artist's challenge. For me less becomes more, and expression evolves from simplicity of design. Since my first commissioned bronze wall sculpture in 1967, my work has evolved through oils on canvas to contemporary porcelain mosaics.

I have always gravitated toward three-dimensional art in which I juxtapose color, shape, texture, and emotion in organic designs. Mosaic art is perfect for my expression: fluid enough to fuel my creativity, yet restrictive enough to force me to work with color in an entirely new way.

Depending upon tile and grout colors and the size, placement, and spacing of the tiles, the overall effect can be either vibrant or soothing. Tactile, durable, and substantial, mosaic art cannot be as soft as a watercolor or as finely blended as an Old Master's oil, yet its sheer physicality beckons observers to touch and appreciate it.

My mosaics are alive with fascinating interplays of rich colors, textures, and three-dimensional effects. Chips of porcelain (approximately 5 per square inch) are blended with inlays of stained glass, exotic woods, metals, marble, and granite to form freestanding, hanging, or furniture art. Painterly effects, sparkle, and organic lines flow readily from the hard stone and metals, creating beauty that demands to be touched.

Ray Zovar's booth display at the “One-of-a-kind” show in Chicago.

I welcome both abstract and representational commission inquiries.

Porcelain Tile: Porcelain is generally considered to be the most durable of all tile surfaces. Ceramic mosaic tiles--pavers--are dense, fine-grained, and smooth with sharply formed faces. Commonly made using the dust-pressed method, pavers are virtually both impervious to blunt impact and, with a 3% or less absorption rate, frostproof.

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