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Robert
Crum is also a muralist working in both paint and tile. Crum learned to work on a large
scale by assisting master fresco artist Ben Long on four of his frescoes completed in
Montreat, Statesville, and Charlotte,
North Carolina. Robert can be commissioned to complete murals on both interior
and exterior walls using paint or tile (ceramic, porcelain, stone or glass).
In 2005, he completed a porcelain mosaic mural on a 110 foot long exterior wall located in downtown Salisbury on Depot Street, and it is called “Smoke and
Steel.” It is a public art project commissioned by the City of Salisbury,
North Carolina and was funded, in part, by a grant from The Blanche and Julian
Robertson Family Foundation. The “Smoke and Steel” mural depicts images
from early twentieth century transportation and includes steam locomotives, a trolley,
a depot and railroad workers. This mosaic was completed
by gluing to the wall, one at a time, over 100,000 porcelain tiles that are one square
inch and smaller.
In 2006
and 2007, Robert completed two Italian glass mosaic murals of Saint Philip and Saint James (each measuring 9-1/2 feet high
by 4 feet wide) in a church - Iglesia Episcopal San Felipe y Santiago, San Jose, Costa Rica. He also completed the mosaic
altar and a baptismal font decorated with the same Italian glass mosaic tile.
Above and to the right are views of the Italian glass mosaic murals and altar
in the Episcopal Church of Saint Philip and Saint James in San Jose, Costa Rica.
The smalti and porcelain mosaic bench shown above is along a sidewalk on the side of a commercial building
in downtown Salisbury, NC. The imagery was inspired by the small lizards that run along and sun themselves on the sidewalk
in the heat of summer.
The smalti and porcelain mosaic mural to the right is 7 feet high by 51 feet long. It was installed in
2007 at The Ashworth, a 19 story condominium building located on the Atlantic Ocean in North Myrtle Beach, South
Carolina. The title of the mural is "Creatures Both Small and Great."
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