El Vado Bar Back Mosaic

digital illustrations on polymer tiles | 2018

In Spanish, “El Vado” means the ford or narrowest part of the river. The mosaic bar back at the newly renovated El Vado Auto Court highlights the ford of the Rio Grande as well as the location of the motel in a red circle in the center of the piece, surrounded by a topographic map and the Albuquerque roads in the 1930s when the motel was built. The bar back began as a digital illustration using colors from the surrounding bosque and El Vado's original branding which was then printed on mosaic tiles.