Randyland's Phantasma Gloria

Randy Lawrence is an Echo Park resident and art department guy who has created an innovative art installation in his home.  His glass bottle mosaic is a tribute to the Virgin of Guadalupe that he has titled "Phantasma Gloria."  I toured his sculpture to see how he uses glass as an expression of art.

The best viewing times at Randyland are ten am and four pm, due to the position of the sun.  Because of the shape of the bottles, as the light travels through, it is doubly refracted in the body of the bottle and the neck.  The bottles are wire tied to a rebar structure, so that they are pliable to the wind.  This creates a mosaic effect with sky as the backdrop.  The lack of grout allows for changing viewing effects.  Unfortunately, the day I visited it was overcast, and the sky's colors were muted.  I'll be going back to take more pictures.

I found out about the site through a tour with Atlas Obscura, but Randy can be contacted directly through his website to schedule independently.

Randy is an entertainingly impassioned hippy, and his joy effuses in his presentation of his work. He told us how his work has been through several inventions over about fifteen or eighteen years, with the first being a smaller scale undersea mosaic.  His explanation broke down the process of refraction and he was open to answering any questions. 

The details in the sculpture are intricate.  It takes time to take it all in.

  

The vastness of the sculpture makes one feel small, but its beauty fills the viewer with joy.  

Randy also plays with his vision by cutting different templates in wood and plastic.  His stencils take on new meaning when they are used in foreground as silhouettes against the colors of the bottles. 

Atlas Obscura's recap of the Randyland site can be found here, but I encourage you to make your own.