The Concrete Impressionist Exhibits Skills, Beauty

with WOC Tribute to New York

Juliet Farmer, ConcreteNetwork.Com Columnist

When Joe Nasvik called Dominick Cardone, owner of The Concrete Impressionist in Brooklyn, New York, about participating in the World of Concrete's Artistry in Concrete exhibit, there was only one answer to give.

For Cardone, who has concrete pulsing through his veins—his father was a flatwork concrete contractor, and Dominick grew up in the business, working for his father as a young boy through high school, and working for a construction company in Manhattan after he graduated—the answer was yes.

But when asked what The Concrete Impressionist planned to create, well, there was no quick answer.

"I had just started working with Bob Harris' color-shifting epoxy, and I knew I wanted to use that," recalls Cardone. "And as for the scheme itself, I knew I wanted to incorporate something from New York. After continuous meetings of the minds between me and my assistant, Joseph Denaro, it eventually materialized into a 9/11 memorial, for which I began drawing sketches depicting what I would like to create."

Those sketches were eventually sent to Modello Design Group, and when the final draft was finished, Cardone did a test run at his facility. (That work is now hanging on the wall in his shop.)

After getting the kinks worked out, Cardone set about shipping all the materials to the hotel he would be staying at for the WOC.

"I got a call in the middle of the night from the Bellagio. They said one of the packages (of solvent-based urethane) had opened, and they needed to know how to clean it up," Cardone laughs, adding that he then walked them through the process.

Luckily, Cardone's trip to Las Vegas was nothing compared to what his packages went through. When he was finally in the same room with his materials, he says there were "evidence" stickers all over the sealer packaging.

Then he had to contend with the weather.

"We thought since it was Las Vegas, it would be desert-like weather," Cardone explains. "We got there on Sunday, the day after they had poured our slab, and it snowed."

After covering the slab for the night, Cardone says he woke on Monday to high winds and cold temperatures, which put a damper on an application he says was really meant for indoor installation.

So he did what anyone else would do when the weather puts a crimp in outdoor plans—he headed to Home Depot to buy a tent and a heater. (Cardone adds that Doug Bannister of The Stamp Store was also kind enough to lend him more heaters during the week.)

Using almost everything but the kitchen sink—stencils, acetone-based dyes, 100 percent solid epoxies, color-shift metallic powders sandwiched between layers of epoxy, overlay cement, and metal leaf—Cardone, his wife Janine, and employee Thomas Lazetta troweled, painted, rolled, used a turkey baster, and sprayed the concrete with a high-volume low-pressure (HVLP) sprayer to create a moving tribute to 9/11.

First, they taped off the borders, and then they sprayed acetone-based dyes for the background color of the sky and water. Then they taped that off and applied white Colormaker microtopping as a base color for the border, then taped in the stripes, which were sprayed with acetone-based red and blue dyes., Cardone then applied a color-shifting epoxy to the sky and water, even using a turkey baster filled with different color-shifting epoxies to create movement in the water and clouds in the sky.

For the stars on the flag, a Modello stencil was used and they gilded the stars with metal leaf into the blue area. They then applied one application of epoxy over the entire flag border. The following day they screened down the entire slab to remove all the bubbling from the severe out-gassing due to the inclement weather.

For the Statue of Liberty and World Trade Center, a negative Modello, which only showed the outline of each, was placed in each designated location, and acetone-based dyes were sprayed through the Modellos onto the epoxy.

Once the outlined stencils were removed, they applied a positive Modello over the outlined areas, in which they used a positive Modello to apply the metal leafing, using Japanese green metal leaf for the Statue of Liberty and German-grade silver leaf for World Trade Center. Naturally, during this process the winds dramatically picked up and Janine had her work cut out for her to keep from applying metal leafing on the surrounding exhibitors.

For the scroll, they used a negative Modello outline and applied Colormaker Sgraffino microtopping with black integral color over the epoxy, then placed the positive Modello and used bronze metal leafing. The scroll displayed a proverb chosen by Cardone's mother Marie, which he felt was appropriate for the exhibit. For the rocks under the World Trade Center, they used a negative Modello with grey Sgraffino microtopping, charcoal integral color and hard burnished to create variation.

Finally, they coated the whole thing with a 100 percent solid epoxy, then a solvent-based high-gloss urethane.

Since coming back from the WOC, Cardone says things have been busy. He's extended his market into Martha's Vineyard, The Hampton's and Philadelphia, as well as received inquiries from as far away as Miami—all while fielding calls from designers and architects who want to work with him.

In June 2006, he will be showing his work at the Buildings New York Expo., before heading to Sweden to teach a class on Combimix, Self-Leveling Underlayments and cementitious microtopping finishes.

In the meantime, Cardone says he's making education a priority; his company offers in-house training and seminars for his employees, focusing on testing products before bringing them to market, and also educating clients about concrete—what they need to know, what to expect in the future, and design possibilities. Cardone also states they will be providing classes on Colormaker Floors cementitious microtoppings at their Brooklyn location.

Cardone says he's constantly focusing on quality control while he provides his clients with a wide variety of pre-cast and cast-in-place countertops, tables, furniture, sinks and fireplace surrounds, as well as vertical walls, and custom wall and floor tile. The company also offers several flooring treatments, including self-leveling overlays, microtoppings, acid stained concrete, logos in concrete, dyed concrete, and polished concrete.

"I want the decorative concrete industry to be synonymous with quality," Cardone concludes. "And I still love what I do!"

The Concrete Impressionist
Dominick Cardone
678 Berriman Street
Brooklyn, NY 11208
(718) 677-1298 Office
(718) 677-0651 FAX
(888) 896-8096 Toll Free
Send Mail Now - Click Here
www.concreteimpressionist.com

More Contractor Features

Site Sponsors