By Marcy Rosner
After 27 years, it is with a heavy heart that Mike Scoats, owner and proprietor of the Grey Lodge Pub, was forced to close its doors permanently. He will sell the unique building due to Covid-19 as well as changes to the social and economic climate. Many MSOP members recall the wonderful mosaics that covered the walls. I had the good fortune of interviewing him last week and learning about his background, challenging projects, techniques and future plans.
Mike considers himself a self-taught mosaic artist, although he has picked up a few tips from a friend who studied with Isaiah Zagar. It has been fun for him to watch his art progress, from primitive to skilled and detailed. He has taken some drawing classes and mainly drew comics in the past. He described himself as a “capable drawer” but considers this medium a” labor of agony “which is necessary to transfer images to the tiles to be cut. The actual tiling and making mosaics is the fun part for him.
Mike first experimented with this art form in his house built in 1894. It seems as though he began by looking at a space that needed some sort of transformation and came up with a plan. His projects grew larger and more challenging as time went on. His first undertaking was tiling his bathroom and kitchen. This is when he got hooked on the wet saw, still his favorite tool. His biggest home project was his back shed. He assumed it contained asbestos and thought tiling was the best way to seal it in. The design consists of 20 birds native to the neighborhood. Included in his supplies was an overabundance of light blue tiles he bought on clearance which he later used in the bar. Unfortunately, as with many of our outdoor projects, the tiles have not all weathered every storm but the birds remain intact.
He then moved on to the Grey Lodge Pub. After the owning the bar for 5 years, he was finally able to afford to buy materials to start working on the building. He started with the men’s room, using tiled letters fired in a friend’s kiln to create meaningful sayings. From there he continued into the bar area where the bare walls definitely sprucing up. As often happens with artists – his project grew and grew, taking on a life of its own. He began by tiling the Grey Lodge logo for people to stand in front of to take pictures. It needed something more and so decided to mosaic people sitting at the bar. In total, the mural includes 30 different figures each about 19” tall and covers most of the north and south walls of the first floor of the pub.
As things progressed his challenge was finding ways to change thing as they went along and figuring out how to add different types of media. Mike put a lot of thought into who would patronize the pub. Some of his inspirations came from the suggestions of others as well as his own interest in Futurama, comics and pop culture. He included many favorite iconic figures and took this opportunity to memorialize people dear to him who had passed away. And of course, he had to add himself. Among his favorites is Santa Ed, the Santa Claus from Philadelphia City Hall. He shared how surprised and thrilled his family was to see their deceased relative’s caricature on Facebook. He also loves the Beatles and was amazed at how recognizable their mosaics were. He is particularly proud of the Philly Phanatic which needed many cuts of expensive tiles.
Mike’s process was multi-step, well planned out and methodical. He used a variety of reference materials to draw from. Some were downloaded cartoon images; others, as Santa Ed, were actual photographs. He used a still frame from the movie “Help “to create the cartoon of the Beatles, rearranging it so the Fab Four interacted better. He then made templates using a computer monitor to fit the correct size. His next step was to trace them on to the tiles, which he later cut with his wet saw. Although he did used some plastic and china, 99% of the mosaics are tiles.
Mike assembled the individual figures at a work table in his home studio. He used templates as guide, masking tape and a spreadsheet with numbering system so they could be transported to the pub. He said this was the most challenging part for him since was already skilled at working with the tools. Naturally there were some cuts that didn’t work out. He took them in stride, although I’m sure he wasn’t pleased when expensive tiles were not usable. He used thin set to adhere them to the walls and then grouted. He worked entirely alone except for the last step, as the grouting needed to be done quickly once installed.
Regular pub customers were able to watch the installation over four years. It was done in bits and pieces; he took long breaks when he had to. Each figure was added to the group as it was finished. It was finally completed in September 2019, when there was no room for anyone else. Unfortunately, Covid-19 squashed the big celebration that was planned to celebrate the completion of the mosaics.
When asked what advice he would give others who are thinking about undertaking a large project his answer was “Do it!”. “It’s important to work in small increments in a methodical fashion. If you grout as you go along, rather than waiting to complete the entire job, you can see how you are progressing.” Another piece of good advice was when cuts stop working out, usually after about 90 minutes for him, it’s time to put the saw down. When he is tired, and no longer having fun, it’s time to walk away for a while.
What originally drew Mike to mosaics was that they can last for thousands of years. We are all hoping that no matter what happens to the property his mosaics will live on forever He is excited about his new endeavor and the Lucky Cat Brewing Company is expected to open in early 2021. Naturally he is planning to create some mosaics in his new location. He hasn’t picked up his saw since last spring but he says “It’s like riding a bike. I may be shaky for a few seconds but it’s easy to get back into the groove. “
Mike is as true inspiration. He is filled with emotion, talent, wisdom, perseverance, and optimism. We look forward to seeing many more of his creations. Pictures of the bar can be viewed at and more information can be seen on his website at http://scoats.com/artist.htm and a live interview is available on MSoP’s YouTube channel at (15) MSOP Artist Feature Scoats - YouTube
