- Feb 5, 2002
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Nate Pfenenger took his chances, rolled the dice and came out a winner.
Specifically, he turned 20,400 black dice into an intricate, larger-than-life-size mosaic portrait of Venerable Father Augustus Tolton.
“I didn’t think it was going to be a big thing,” said Nate, a senior at Fr. Tolton Regional Catholic High School in Columbia. “I just thought it would be a really fun and memorable art project.”
Never one to settle for the ordinary, Nate says all of his art projects are “out of the box,” or beyond the scope of everyday thinking.
“I’ve used Rubik’s Cubes to make a mosaic of my dog,” he said. “I’ve made a bonsai tree out of twisted wire. I’ve painted cartoon characters on a pair of shoes. And now, I’ve made a mosaic out of dice.”
In search of his latest challenge, he recalled seeing several images that were created with dice.
He talked to his art teacher, Lonnie Tapia, who suggested he use this unusual medium to capture Fr. Tolton, a Missouri native born into an enslaved family, who grew up to become the first recognizably Black, Roman Catholic priest in the United States.
“Mr. Tapia gives his students so much freedom,” Nate noted. “As long as it qualifies as art, he’ll pretty much let you do it, within reason.”
Nate went into the project not knowing whether he would ultimately succeed with it.
“You do still learn something from failure,” he noted. “In life, too, it doesn’t mean you should give up if you fail at something. You use it as a stepping stone to future success.”
His first big challenge for this work was to acquire enough dice for the project.
“No store carries that many dice,” he noted.
He wound up ordering the dice from a wholesale distributor and having them shipped from China.
“And then, they got seized by U.S. Customs two or three times,” Nate noted. “That was quite the experience.”
He got some funny looks while buying 112 bottles of Super Glue, spread out across several stores in Columbia.
“Turns out, whenever you go buy 30 or 40 tubes of Super Glue at the same time, people’s first thought isn’t that you must be making a big dice mosaic,” Nate pointed out. “So, I did get some weird looks.”
He bought black dice with white dots, which worked well for illustrating Fr. Tolton’s dark skin.
He chose to reproduce perhaps the most familiar image of Fr. Tolton so that everyone, especially his schoolmates, would recognize him.
His parents agreed to cover the cost of the materials.
Planning and logistics were essential for the project.
“Once I developed my own system for how do to it, my system worked,” he said.
Continued below.
catholicmissourianonline.com
Specifically, he turned 20,400 black dice into an intricate, larger-than-life-size mosaic portrait of Venerable Father Augustus Tolton.
“I didn’t think it was going to be a big thing,” said Nate, a senior at Fr. Tolton Regional Catholic High School in Columbia. “I just thought it would be a really fun and memorable art project.”
Never one to settle for the ordinary, Nate says all of his art projects are “out of the box,” or beyond the scope of everyday thinking.
“I’ve used Rubik’s Cubes to make a mosaic of my dog,” he said. “I’ve made a bonsai tree out of twisted wire. I’ve painted cartoon characters on a pair of shoes. And now, I’ve made a mosaic out of dice.”
In search of his latest challenge, he recalled seeing several images that were created with dice.
He talked to his art teacher, Lonnie Tapia, who suggested he use this unusual medium to capture Fr. Tolton, a Missouri native born into an enslaved family, who grew up to become the first recognizably Black, Roman Catholic priest in the United States.
“Mr. Tapia gives his students so much freedom,” Nate noted. “As long as it qualifies as art, he’ll pretty much let you do it, within reason.”
Nate went into the project not knowing whether he would ultimately succeed with it.
“You do still learn something from failure,” he noted. “In life, too, it doesn’t mean you should give up if you fail at something. You use it as a stepping stone to future success.”
His first big challenge for this work was to acquire enough dice for the project.
“No store carries that many dice,” he noted.
He wound up ordering the dice from a wholesale distributor and having them shipped from China.
“And then, they got seized by U.S. Customs two or three times,” Nate noted. “That was quite the experience.”
He got some funny looks while buying 112 bottles of Super Glue, spread out across several stores in Columbia.
“Turns out, whenever you go buy 30 or 40 tubes of Super Glue at the same time, people’s first thought isn’t that you must be making a big dice mosaic,” Nate pointed out. “So, I did get some weird looks.”
He bought black dice with white dots, which worked well for illustrating Fr. Tolton’s dark skin.
He chose to reproduce perhaps the most familiar image of Fr. Tolton so that everyone, especially his schoolmates, would recognize him.
His parents agreed to cover the cost of the materials.
Planning and logistics were essential for the project.
“Once I developed my own system for how do to it, my system worked,” he said.
Continued below.
Tolton Catholic senior makes Fr. Tolton mosaic with 20,400 dice - The Catholic Missourian
Nate Pfenenger took his chances, rolled the dice and came out a winner. Specifically, he turned 20,400 black dice into an intricate, larger-than-life-size mosaic portrait of Venerable Father …
