Piecing Together the Past : La Habra Artisan Elaine Odland Cain Creates Historical Murals of Her Norwegian Ancestors and Other Hand-Painted Tiles Depicting Images From Sunflowers to ‘Day of the Dead’ Skeletons

Combining her interest in genealogy with her background in tile painting, Elaine Odland Cain of La Habra embarked on an ambitious project: creating a series of murals depicting her ancestors, dressed in period clothing native to their region of Norway.

Her first project, “The Voss Bride,” features a young woman who looks like what Cain imagines her grandmother looked like on her wedding day. The piece, which measures 4 by 6 feet, was a three-year project.

In addition to the mural projects that reflect Cain’s personal heritage, she creates tiles for others with images ranging from sunflowers to Mexican-styled “Day of the Dead” skeletons.

Her tiles and murals are used indoors and outdoors, as accents or as focal points.

Cain carefully researches her subject before painting and lets her work reflect what she has found. While doing research for a Viking mural, she could find no references or drawings of the horned caps and helmets generally associated with Vikings. “So I painted the Vikings with stocking caps, which is probably a more accurate portrayal,” she said.

She has painted five Norwegian scenes so far: “The Voss Bride” (which shows the bride in her embroidered wedding costume leading the wedding procession on a white horse), “The Oldest Daughter” (a scene featuring a daughter and mother inside a log cabin), “The Three Godmothers” (an image of three women in festive dress carrying a small infant to be baptized), “The Fjord Farm Child” (a scene of a young boy seated among the hens of his farm with the majestic fiords of Norway rising from the ocean behind him), and “Vikings” (depicting men in a boat with their spears and shields--and stocking caps).

Cain’s interest in tile painting has led to commissions throughout the country. She is currently working on a mural of deer in a forest that will be displayed along a garden wall in Minnesota.

“One customer had a large wrought-iron gate in his entryway, and he had me paint two large lions that stood on either side of the gate,” she said. “Another customer had me paint several different tiles featuring fish and marine life that he used to decorate a fountain.”

Another mural, featuring a Madonna and Child, is displayed in a Sierra Madre courtyard. Another series featuring a Hopi mother combing her daughter’s hair was mounted on to the wall of a San Gabriel home that boasts a Southwestern motif.

“The tiles hold up well outdoors,” Cain said. “But I’d use caution in placing them near a pool because of the chemicals used for cleaning. Over the years, this could fade or damage the piece.”

Her smaller tiles are frequently used in flooring, as decorative borders, and to create bright, colorful tables. The tile images include sunflowers (which are among Cain’s current best sellers), cats, chickens and a wide assortment of animals, as well as a series of “Kabuki Rabbits” (whimsical rabbits dressed in Japanese kimonos).

She has a series of “Day of the Dead” tiles featuring the skeletons that figure so prominently in the traditional Mexican holiday.

Cain learned tile painting gradually. About 12 years ago, when she owned a private school in Brea, she decided to have her students try their hand at painting on tile.

“I had always been interested in art and painting,” she said. “But with three small children at home and a busy job, I didn’t have much time to devote to it.”

However, she liked the results she achieved when she helped her students, so from there she continued to adapt and practice.

“A lot of my early work was all trial and error,” she said. “I had to keep experimenting to get the look I wanted.”

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Working on terra-cotta tiles, Cain first draws (or traces) her designs and then applies a glaze that when fired will bring out the bright, vivid colors.

“Glazes give you a much brighter look than paint,” she said. “Since glazes are created from glass, it lets the light penetrate in a way that paint cannot.”

Cain also prefers the terra-cotta tiles to the more common creamy white tiles. She covers the entire face of the tile with color so none of the original terra-cotta shows through.

“That way I can cover the whole surface with color,” she said.

Firing the tiles in one of two furnaces that reach temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees, Cain literally bakes the glaze onto the tile. However, she has to carefully tend the tiles while they’re being fired. If they stay in the kiln too long, the fiery reds can easily turn into muddy browns.

“I create each tile individually,” she said. “I may follow a certain pattern, but each tile has to be painted by hand. The glaze is a little different on each one.”

For her murals, Cain starts with a sketch and then blows the drawing up to the desired size. From there, she hand-traces each tile, fitting as many as 80 tiles together to create the larger pieces. Once this is accomplished, each piece is hand-glazed, fired and only when the colors have met with Cain’s satisfaction are they pieced together.

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While Cain has plans to continue her Norwegian series, she is also exploring the possibility of creating murals of her mother’s side of the family: a group that settled in the Cape Cod region.

She combs through regional history books, looking for inspiration in paintings and photographs.

She has painted scenes from many cultures, including murals of families from Mexico and South America. An image that is of the most interest to Cain at present is one based on her maternal grandmother.

“It’s a drawing I made of her coming to America with her three sons. She is looking out over the ocean with her boys and pointing at something. I think it’s a very powerful image. The immigrants who came here often had to leave everything behind in their native lands. They were brave and adventurous people. What I enjoy about creating the family murals is that it gives me the opportunity to remember and pay homage to those memories.”

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Elaine Cain’s Day of the Dead tiles are available at Galleria del Sol, 112 W. Wilshire Blvd., Fullerton. Her work is shown at various local art shows and craft fairs. For information on murals or other tile work, she can be reached at her La Habra Studio at (310) 691-4701.