God Sees Me: George Ehling’s Mosaic House with Lillian Sizemore
Saturday, April 27, 2019, 1:00pm
A chance meeting at a historic mosaic venue in California brought Lillian Sizemore and George Ehling together. Thus began an enduring friendship that granted her access to his hilltop mansion, which is entirely decorated in mosaic, tile and glass bottles, expressing his lifelong passion for found material and pattern. George’s life as a boxer and Hollywood actor forms an intriguing backdrop to his discovery of the European art and architecture which inspired his own joyful creativity and improvisation with decorative motifs. Sizemore argues that Ehling’s house belongs among the most elite of the fantasy and outsider art environments. The presentation is an homage to George Ehling’s exceptional artistry. The private home is receiving more attention, in part thanks to Sizemore’s photos and writings and her organized tours alongside George himself. Ehling passed away at age 89 in August 2016, and his final tour was for the SAMA/SanDiego group. Sizemore’s talk will feature loads of photos of the home and his early life, along with engaging storytelling. As one friend of the family put it: “Lillian, you do George proud.”
An artist and independent researcher, Lillian Sizemore has participated as an invited speaker and maker in international cultural mosaic exchanges and has instigated preservation campaigns for historic midcentury mosaics. Her research work addresses the gap of modern mosaic’s legacy within the history of art and her articles have been published in Andamento, Mosaic Art NOW, RawVision, and Society for Commercial Archaeology. She authored the first mosaic-specific tour guide “Guide to Mosaic Sites: San Francisco. Lillian is the administrator for the George Ehling Mosaic House Facebook fan page and continues to offer occasional tours of the home with an endorsement from the family. LillianSizemore.com
