About Todd Turner

​

Todd Turner is a stained glass mosaic fan artist. He is unique in that he shows his love for comic books by creating stained glass mosaics of the superheroes and villains we have all come to love and despise, inspired by the very panels of the comics themselves.

 

1968 and raised in a small rural town in northern KY, he was "accidentally" introduced to comic books at the age of thirteen by his grandmother.  They had seen the movie "Clash of the Titans" and he asked her to get him any magazine that was printed about the movie. She purchased instead a comic book, "Teen Titans" issue #1, and he has been hooked on comics ever since.

 

Being a lousy penciler, his love for comics could only be expressed by the magnitude of his growing collection of over 10,000 books. In 2002, he and his wife visited the H. Driehuas Gallery of Stained Glass at the Navy pier in Chicago. At that moment He found a medium to express his love of comic book art, stained glass.

 

Todd is self taught and creates his mosaics completely by hand. He only uses wheeled nippers, hand glass cutters, running and grozer pliers, dental tools, or other items he can get his hands on. He does not use mechanical saws or grinders. Being partially colorblind, Todd relies on his family in picking the perfect color for his creations.

 

Todd desires for his art to be interactive, tacticle. He wants people to be able to touch them and feel a part of it. He wants his art to be light and fun not dark and foreboding. He wants people to have a child-like joy when they experience his mosaics. He wants you to know that anyone can pick up broken pieces and create a masterpiece.

​

​

​

• Passion: He has a love for heroes and villains and how we can relate to them in our every day lives.

• Vision: He wants to create touchable art that makes adults feel like children and stimulates children to    create and explore their inner artist.

• Mission:  He believes all people can learn how to pick up broken pieces and create their own masterpiece.

 

Experience/Education

 

Todd began the self-study of mosaics in 2002.  He purchased two books and began to soak up all one could on the subject of stained glass and its incorporation into mosaics.  Glass grinders or saws where too expensive for him, so he decided to focus and hone his skills using only hand tools, such as glass cutters, scorers, pliers, and tile nippers. Over the past nineteen years, Todd has learned new strategies and techniques from other mosaic artists who have been kind enough to share their expertise.  He hope to continue to grow and never stop learning as he goes forward in his mosaic endeavors.

 

Commissions

​​

• 2011 - "Three Crosses" commissioned by First Church of God, Mount Sterling, KY to raise money for a youth center.

• 2012 – “Pray For Mongolia” commissioned by missionaries as a gift to church staff in Mongolia.

 

Exhibits

​​

• 2011 -- "Evening at the Arts," First Church of God, Mount Sterling, KY

• 2017 – “About Face,” Gateway Regional Art Center, Mount Sterling, KY

• 2017 – “Star Wars, Opening Night,” The Movie Tavern, Nicholasville, KY

• 2018 --  "PRHBTN," Lexington Art League, Lexington, KY

• 2019 --  "Kentucky Theatre,"  Lexington, KY

• 2019 --  "Regal Cinema, Captain Marvel Celebration," Lexington, KY

• 2019 --  "Glass Heroes," Gateway Regional Art Center, Mount Sterling, KY

• 2019 --  "Comix,"  Valley Art Center, Chagrin Falls, OH

• 2020 --  New Port Art Gallery, Newport, KY

 

Collections

 

Mosaics have gone into several private collections.

 

            2020 Nashville, TN

            2020 Escondido, CA

            2020 Astoria, NY

            2019 Westerville, OH

            2019 Lexington, KY

            2017 Fort Bragg, CA

            2017 Lexington, KY              

            2014 Orange Beach, AL

            2011 Mount Sterling, KY

            2004 California, KY              

            2004 Mount Sterling, KY

 

Awards

​​

• September 2015 -First Place, SuperHeroHype Fan Art Contest - Darth Vader

• June 2012 -Second Place, SuperHeroHype Fan Art Contest -Mjolnir & Cap's Shield

• February 2007 -Second Place, SuperHeroHype Fan Art Contest - Ghost Rider

• October 2006-First Place, SuperHeroHype Fan Art Contest - The Human Torch

 

Community Service

 

Summer of 2015:  For four weeks, Todd taught mosaic techniques and skills to a group of six to ten at-risk teenage girls in a residential facility (Hope Hill Children's Home, Mt. Sterling, KY).  These workshops culminated in the creation of a mosaic guitar comprised of stained glass, glass beads, and broken records. The guitar was presented to the Rhett Walker Band, who performed at "Hopefest," a fourth of July fundraiser for the home.

 

Affiliations

 

Society of American Mosaic Artists

 

Geek Accomplishments

​​

• February 2017 James Gunn, Director of "Guardians of the Galaxy," wrote "This is Amazing" and "Amazing" on tweeted photo of the mosaic of Groot and Rocket Raccoon 

• July 2016 Scott Derrickson, Director of "Doctor Strange," took a screenshot of the Steve Ditko inspired Doctor Strange mosaic and retweeted it with the caption, "Stained Glass from the Church of Strange."

• July 2016 Gabriel Luna, Ghost Rider actor on "Marvel, Agents of Shield'" liked a tweet of the Glow-In-The-Dark Ghost Rider Mosaic.