Swimming in Art: The Danilo Bonazza Story ll

In this episode, Rudy and Andrea, along with their guest Danilo, delve into the intricacies of art and pool mosaics. Danilo, a seasoned artist and pool designer, shares insights into his career, highlighting his passion for creating unique mosaics and pool designs. He reminisces about his favorite pieces, including a recent project featuring Prince, and discusses the challenge of selecting a single favorite from his extensive portfolio of over a hundred pool projects. Danilo also expresses his dream project of designing a guitar-shaped swimming pool for a rock idol, revealing his deep appreciation for rock music and its influence on his work.

Throughout the conversation, Danilo emphasizes the importance of proper preparation and materials, particularly the use of glass tiles for their color range and precision. He candidly shares the common mistakes in pool tiling, stressing the necessity of correct surface preparation and waterproofing to avoid future issues. Danilo's dedication to his craft is evident as he recounts fixing a poorly done job out of respect for the client and his relationships with designers and pool builders.

The episode also touches on the more personal aspects of Danilo's journey, including his early experiences with art, his father's influence, and the challenges he faced in pursuing his passion. Danilo's commitment to maintaining the integrity of his work is clear as he discusses the issue of others claiming his work as their own, underscoring the importance of protecting one's creations in the digital age.

Rudy and Andrea explore the technical side of pool mosaics with Danilo, discussing his preferred materials and the meticulous process involved in creating his art. The conversation reveals the depth of Danilo's expertise and his willingness to share his knowledge, albeit with

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Transcript

Rudy (28:56.954)
What's been your favorite piece so far that you've done?

Danilo (29:00.79)
Are you talking about art piece?

Rudy (29:02.692)
Either or, pools aren't one of each.

Danilo (29:06.246)
I don't know, it's hard to just nail it to one. I would have a hard time to just find 10. But I love for sure the Prince that I did recently, the artist, Prince. I came up, yeah, I came up in the last few years of a whole series of art pieces of rock and pop culture icons like Marilyn Monroe, Prince.

Rudy (29:11.713)
Wha- wha-

Rudy (29:18.728)
I saw that, that came out really good.

Danilo (29:33.538)
Jack Nicholson and so on so those But Jack Nicholson is shiny. Yeah Yes, correct That yeah, I really love that scene. So yeah

Rudy (29:35.944)
not just jack nicholson jack nicholson specifically in the shining how badass is that

That's that's pretty I'll tell you what if my wife and I went shopping with you she would want the van go I would want the jack nicholson piece for the shining so We'll talk later What piece what job do you want to do?

Danilo (29:51.666)
Okay. Yeah. All right. So, but also as far as swimming pools, so many beautiful ones. I was lucky enough to do so many beautiful projects. So it's really hard to nail it down to just a few. I've done more than a hundred pools. I don't have the right number, but so it's really difficult to.

They're all unique and all nice and so it's very difficult to just find you know just few so but I was lucky enough to do so many beautiful ones. What kind of project I want to do right now?

Rudy (30:34.848)
Yes, but you haven't had the opportunity yet. Your dream project, what does that look like?

Danilo (30:41.334)
It's difficult to say because I can almost say that I've done it all as far as, you know, I would love to do a project for one of my rock, I'm a big rock fan, so one of my rock idols and having this person let me do whatever I want. So let's say a guitar shaped swimming pool in the,

the shape of maybe like a last pole. Yeah, I don't have one specific artist, but I can name a few. Some of my favorites are, you know, obviously Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, yeah, Sun Garden, Pearl Jam.

Rudy (31:15.829)
who's the artist.

Andrea The Pool Girl (31:17.043)
That would be really cool.

Rudy (31:27.496)
Nice. Jimmy Page.

Danilo (31:39.767)
Alice in Chains, those are my favorite artists. So yeah, from the 70s to the 90s is definitely my favorite music.

Rudy (31:43.968)
Your taste spans decades, which is pretty cool.

Rudy (31:51.472)
Andrea was laughing because she knows that you lost me after 1990.

Danilo (31:57.214)
Okay.

Andrea The Pool Girl (31:58.094)
I was like, he probably doesn't know who Soundgarden is.

Rudy (32:01.6)
So, but I have seen Jimmy Page in concert, so I'm okay with that.

Danilo (32:06.906)
One of the few bands I've never seen. I actually tried to get, you know, their last concert was in 2008 at the O2 Arena in London. It was just one night reunion and I tried to get the tickets which was impossible. Then I found out why that night 22 million people all around the world tried to get the tickets. So yeah, so it's...

Rudy (32:15.253)
Mm-hmm.

Rudy (32:29.452)
Wow, wow, my next concert that I'm gonna struggle to get tickets for and not get them is going to be Ozzy's farewell concert. He's only doing one and it's in his hometown in England. And then that's the end of that era. So yeah, it's so cool how you've incorporated music into what you do. Let me ask you, do you listen to rock music while you're putting out the tile, while you're laying the tile?

Danilo (32:43.991)
Yeah.

Danilo (32:58.23)
Absolutely, absolutely, every freaking day. There's, I don't work if I don't have my radio or my phone connected to my speaker listening to rock music. You know, like.

Rudy (33:02.77)
Nice.

Rudy (33:14.336)
That's about the best line in a contract I ever friggin' heard of. I don't work unless I can have my radio and blast rock.

Danilo (33:18.974)
Yeah, yeah, I walk away. If that day my radio doesn't work, I walk away and I go back the day after.

Andrea The Pool Girl (33:25.119)
I'm gonna go.

Rudy (33:27.115)
That's it. I drove four hours to the job.

Andrea The Pool Girl (33:27.731)
I know how you feel because I can't work without the headphones listening to something.

Rudy (33:34.668)
So cool. Where you see the, well, Andrew, do you have something on that list that you can ask? Just give me a break.

Andrea The Pool Girl (33:43.603)
Um, actually I heard you say something right as I was jumping in and I wanted to go back to it. Did you say there was a specific kind of tile that you use for mosaics?

Danilo (33:52.97)
Well, most of the time my stuff is made with glass tiles. I've done over the years something with using stones, but I like better the glass because the range of colors, the way that it cuts, it gives you more precision. It's thinner, usually stone, it has to be, most of the time, 3 1⁄8 of an inch thick, if not more. So it's heavier.

Andrea The Pool Girl (33:58.047)
Okay.

Danilo (34:22.118)
you know, having different issues with that. So I would say 95, if not 99 percent of my projects are in glass. And my favorite size of the tessera of the chip is five eighth of an inch, but also three quarter of an inch gives you a good, you know, good range of options. But a lot of my projects, especially the most detailed ones like the art pieces.

Andrea The Pool Girl (34:32.587)
just in glass tiles.

Danilo (34:51.938)
prints, for example, is done with all 3 1⁄8 tiles.

Andrea The Pool Girl (34:57.087)
And then do you cut them all yourself and like, do you pre, you pre-plan it, obviously, but like you cut everything and just kind of fit it yourself as you go?

Danilo (35:05.438)
Yeah, one by one with my hand nippers. I cut it and then I place it and then I move on to the next one.

Andrea The Pool Girl (35:10.346)
Nice.

Rudy (35:15.02)
That's amazing. Hey, let me ask you this, it's along the same lines. There's a lot of folks in the country now in the United States that do tile pools. There's not as many that do it well. What's the biggest mistake you see?

Andrea The Pool Girl (35:16.519)
Very cool.

Danilo (35:23.839)
Uh-huh.

Danilo (35:31.438)
Oh, so many. The biggest mistake for sure is not prepping the surfaces correctly, especially the waterproofing, which is crucial in a submerged area. Obviously, we're talking about swimming pool and I see people not doing the waterproofing right, using the right materials, right techniques and so on. Not even thinking about anti fracture, which is another stupid mistake because, you know, a big pool with the pressure.

and pressure on both sides. You know, in-ground pool has the pressure of the water, but also the pressure of the earth, the dirt outside moving. And so it crack, it bends, it moves. So those are all crucial things. And a lot of people don't think about it, or they use cheap stuff or wrong techniques and not the right material combinations. It's just, I've seen so many mistakes and.

I wonder why there's definitely a lack of education in the field. That's one of the major issues. And also in my opinion, all the best materials to use for installations of glass is epoxies, installing with epoxy materials and grouting with epoxy materials because they give them more flexibility.

And that's what we need. We need something that's flexible, not something that's extremely rigid. And then if you have a big, powerful force, which is stronger than the substrate, then it will crack. And it will, you know, having the tiles popping or cracking and delaminating and so on. So that's one of the biggest mistakes.

Rudy (37:18.932)
I know the level that you're at, but I'm going to ask this anyway. Have you ever been called to come and fix something somebody else did? And do you take that job?

Danilo (37:31.666)
It actually happened recently. I prefer not to talk about it, mostly for respect of the person that did the installation before me, even though I believe there were mistakes involved, but nobody's perfect. So a mistake can always happen. And I actually decided, most of the time I do not like to accept it, but in this case, I really felt bad for the client.

Uh, because that was a brand new, beautiful, big pool and the client could not really enjoy the way that he wanted. So he asked me to just please do it. And so then I was like, okay, you know what? I'll do it. Uh, also there were some designers and pool builders involved that I really respect and I have a very good relationship with not just business wise, but also I can almost call them friends.

Rudy (38:25.664)
Well, I definitely don't want, I don't want you to throw anybody under the bus. I was giving you a fictitious situation. It was just, I know a lot of times folks will be called to replumb an equipment pad that somebody did and they just look at it and it's such a mess. And they're like, Hey, no, I don't want to get into this. So I was just curious.

Danilo (38:29.463)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Danilo (38:44.077)
Yeah.

Danilo (38:47.919)
Yeah, most of the time I don't do it, but in certain cases, you know, I decided in the past.

Rudy (38:55.488)
Your pools, your mosaics, that is your art. Do you put a signature on it?

Danilo (39:03.298)
Sometimes. Actually, very recently in a big project that I did in the Hamptons, the client was so happy with it that asked me to place my signature. It was actually pretty big, three and a half feet wide. You will actually see the video soon on my Instagram about that and in a couple months when the season gets better and the pool will...

Rudy (39:26.186)
Okay.

Danilo (39:32.086)
be unveiled to the public with, you know, all the furniture and everything else. I will definitely go down with my photographer to take nice photos and videos and shootings, the whole thing.

Rudy (39:45.676)
So obviously this is a pool industry podcast for pool professionals. Do you take on the role as mentor?

Danilo (39:58.167)
in what capacity?

Rudy (40:01.528)
teaching, training, walking somebody through the finer aspects of mosaics.

Danilo (40:08.414)
I did it. I did it in the past. It's not really my thing, but I did it a few times. Sometimes it was successful, sometimes it was not because it really depends on how the person that receives the knowledge from me behaves and what he does with that knowledge.

Um, so I'm always a little torn about doing it. Uh, at the same time, I do seminaries, uh, you know, talking about on a general basis, uh, what's involved, but going to very little details and specifics, it will take so long months to do it. So is it worth it for me doing it?

I'm torn. Sometimes I say yes, it's totally worth it. Sometimes I say no, it's not. It took me 30 years of my life to create my systems and come out to some conclusions. Why would I share all I know and all the little tricks and details to somebody that maybe doesn't even deserve it or maybe doesn't really want to do a good job? I'm always a little torn about it.

Andrea The Pool Girl (41:35.463)
or put in the work themselves.

Danilo (41:37.426)
Yeah, so I'm always a little torn about it. I was actually disappointed in the past about the behavior of certain people, so that really threw me off.

Rudy (41:40.844)
Sometimes I'm saying

Rudy (41:48.908)
Okay. What's the most bizarre thing you've ever run into?

Danilo (41:54.35)
Oh, there's one, but I can't say it. Uh...

Rudy (41:57.708)
then why'd you tell me to ask the question?

Danilo (42:03.218)
I can't... I... Oh, I didn't remember that I asked that question. The most bizarre? Okay.

Rudy (42:06.764)
I'm like, what the hell? That's never happened before. This is the most bizarre thing. Yeah, this is the most bizarre thing that's happened to us before.

Andrea The Pool Girl (42:10.411)
Oh, how about the second most bizarre that you can tell us about?

Danilo (42:17.074)
Okay, I'm sorry. Okay, no, yeah, I was, yeah, when I sent you that question, maybe I didn't think about this. It was a genuine reaction, yes. So for sure, portraying some people in their private...

Andrea The Pool Girl (42:17.091)
No, it's not. It's definitely not. Definitely not.

Rudy (42:26.592)
Ah, so you have a better one. Okay. Ha ha ha.

Andrea The Pool Girl (42:32.868)
Aw, too bad we can't get that one. Hehehe.

Danilo (42:45.954)
situations, that was definitely one of the most bizarre things to do. In some cases, you know, they gave me a picture of themselves and I just have to replicate what I was seeing in the picture. In some other cases, just very difficult environments to work in. Like, for example, Project Saskatchewan was, you know, working on a project where

We built the structure that was, we had everything heated. So we had 68, 70 degrees inside, but then you had to go to the bathroom outside and it was minus 30. So that was very bizarre. Yeah, that was very bizarre every day. It was like, okay, let me hold it more because I don't wanna go out.

Rudy (43:28.62)
You know, that could be rough.

Rudy (43:36.624)
I wanna jump back just a little bit because you said that in compromising positions, I think is where, well, is how I interpret it, that you'd have to tile or to come up with art for. And you said in some cases, they sent you pictures of themselves. So does that mean also in other cases that they just posed in front of you?

Danilo (44:00.344)
In one case, yes.

Rudy (44:05.087)
And how interesting was that job?

Danilo (44:09.342)
It was, yeah, it was bizarre. Let's put it that way. It was, it was, you know, it was different.

Rudy (44:17.18)
I, you know, we've, we've all walked into that backyard where somebody has been sunbathing before and, uh, definitely I, I can't imagine that you just have to stay there for how many hours would it take to figure that one out?

Danilo (44:30.834)
Well, no, yeah, I mean, in that case, you know, I took pictures and then I privately created the art pieces, took me a couple of weeks, but again, you know, it was an interesting couple of weeks in just doing that.

Rudy (44:45.612)
So from your start doing tile work at the Vatican, running into these things along the way through Trump, Putin, and J.Lo, you've had a very interesting life, my friend.

Danilo (44:59.498)
I was lucky. I was lucky to open certain doors. I was lucky to just be stubborn in believing in myself even when nobody did and just keep believing that things can happen. And I was also lucky to listen to my father when he taught me that I needed to work hard in life if I wanted to be successful.

So all these things combined made me successful. No, no, he opposed it until he died, unfortunately. But he taught me the lesson of working very hard since I was a little kid. And that helped.

Rudy (45:29.792)
Did he think, did your dad, was your dad supportive of your career as a mosaicist?

Rudy (45:49.288)
Is it true that you used to break up his wine bottles to get different colored glass to make pictures?

Danilo (45:54.95)
and getting beat up, yes. Yep.

Rudy (45:56.804)
Yeah

Andrea The Pool Girl (45:59.111)
That's not cool.

Rudy (46:01.428)
Well, you know, it was a...

Danilo (46:02.186)
Yeah, because I broke his bottles of wine, so he would beat me up. But that didn't stop me.

Andrea The Pool Girl (46:03.847)
Yeah, you're gonna get mad.

Rudy (46:08.893)
It was a different time and look at how he turned out. So obviously we don't condone doing that nowadays, but back then it was a little bit more common. So unfortunately. And you can't tell me Paulette's never lifted a wooden spoon before.

Danilo (46:11.903)
Yes, correct.

Danilo (46:16.212)
Now.

Andrea The Pool Girl (46:24.787)
Ask her about the bag of cheese.

Rudy (46:27.888)
I don't want to.

Andrea The Pool Girl (46:29.639)
Yeah, you're gonna ask her about the bag of cheese next time we see her. You know what, we should have her on so she can tell the story.

Rudy (46:35.84)
But right now, Danilo, the process is if somebody, if one of us out in the field comes across somebody who starts asking about a tile job and we think that they have tons of money, we should refer them to you. How do we get ahold of you?

Danilo (46:54.534)
apps. Well, you know, through my website, art and mosaics.com, you have all my information and my emails over there. Through Instagram at art and mosaics, you can send me a message. I always take a look at, you know, the messages that I receive. So it's, let's see, it's pretty fairly easy to find me.

Rudy (47:19.664)
And your artwork, both pools and art, both are art, are on display. On which site would you say is the best one to go to so people can see that?

Danilo (47:34.386)
Probably Instagram is the most updated of whatever I can upload online as I said some of my pieces or some of my projects are you know I signed NDA so I cannot show it to people but you know 70% of what I do it's available so you can just follow me and see what I do.

Rudy (48:00.248)
I want to ask one last question and then, Andrea, if you have anything before we take us out. But I wanted to say, did you give a thumbs up? I wanted to say, have you ever seen, have you, social media can be great, but it can also be a wickedly evil place. Have you ever seen any of your work that somebody had taken and posted as their own?

Andrea The Pool Girl (48:10.987)
Did I? No.

Danilo (48:22.802)
many times. It also happened recently, unfortunately. That's why now I try to post only things with my logo on to protect it. I actually found companies in India and China featuring my

Rudy (48:28.344)
How do you react to that? Is there anything you can do?

Rudy (48:36.612)
I guess it's the best you can do.

Danilo (48:49.562)
my pools and my mosaics. One of them actually had me posing, you know, was a big picture of one of the project with me and they posted on their website. It's like, we sell these files and yeah, I sent them an email like, guys, do you see that this is me in the pool? But it's just funny.

Rudy (48:59.597)
Wow.

Andrea The Pool Girl (49:01.151)
Wow.

Andrea The Pool Girl (49:06.795)
Hehe.

Rudy (49:11.832)
tile. It's you know what tiles been huge in Europe for a long, long time. It's starting to get a foothold here, but yeah, if you want a nice job done, it is expensive. But the benefit is if it's done correctly, it lasts forever. Right.

Danilo (49:29.372)
Yes.

Rudy (49:30.525)
Andrea?

Andrea The Pool Girl (49:32.667)
Um, I, I don't know that I, well, I'm sorry for missing like the beginning of the conversation, but I guess my, if I had to ask a question, it would be like what, cause I, I've done a few pools that were like all tile, you know, not anything beautiful, like the ones that you're doing just, you know, your basic just work regular tiles. So my question I guess would be what, what are like the procedures that you go through for these pools because, uh, and you mentioned using glass tile.

I know a lot of glass tile can have, can get that scaling, can get the film and stuff like that, but that's mostly prevented by proper waterproofing. Like, do you agree with that? Or do you think it's more like, just chemistry related?

Danilo (50:17.426)
Now, mostly is, as I said, preparation is key using the right components, the right materials, the right techniques combined with the right materials and the right procedures. So definitely the cement work in the structure followed by waterproofing slash anti-fracture.

And then installation, in my case, with epoxy materials and grouting with epoxy materials, and then considering expansion joints and all that stuff. So, um, my system, I call it the seven step system because it's really actually seven different steps and materials that allows you to have the, the job completed. I go through seven different phases.

Andrea The Pool Girl (51:08.124)
Okay.

Andrea The Pool Girl (51:12.427)
That's good to know. Let me know if you ever want me to come and brush one of the mosaics. I'm trying to get someone to come let me brush one of their fancy pools, because I don't know, it just looks so satisfying. So anyway, that's all I got. So thanks. Yeah.

Danilo (51:17.974)
Okay.

Danilo (51:28.226)
Okay. So in the meanwhile, while we discussed about other topics, I thought about, you know, a little while ago you asked me what's the dream project. So I actually have one. I don't see it happening. And as soon as I say why, you will understand. But that's really something that will be super cool that I've never done. And again, probably never will be doing. But I want to be the first one to

create a huge art piece on the moon.

Andrea The Pool Girl (52:02.099)
Never say never, that would be really cool. Mut, Rudy, you're muted.

Danilo (52:04.566)
Yeah.

Rudy (52:12.216)
So Elon, if you're listening, we got your guy here. This is the best, the only way I see it happening. So Elon, get your SpaceX ass over here. The only social media platform that didn't go down today, we know you got some inside connections. You want a mosaic on the moon? I think there should be one. I think there should be one on the moon. And Danilo Bonanza, that's the guy to do it for you. He's ready.

Andrea The Pool Girl (52:14.216)
Hahaha

Danilo (52:15.756)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Andrea The Pool Girl (52:30.079)
TikTok was fine.

Andrea The Pool Girl (52:33.928)
Hehehe

Danilo (52:38.378)
I'm ready. I'll give you a discount.

Andrea The Pool Girl (52:40.871)
Nice.

Rudy (52:41.673)
So for everybody including Elon Musk, if you want to find Danilo art and mosaics.com, that's art and mosaics.com. Matter of fact, get your ass over there now. As soon as you're done here, we'll drop the link in the show notes and take a look at some of these things. They're friggin amazing. Andrea.

Andrea The Pool Girl (52:58.672)
Yeah, they are.

Danilo (52:59.231)
Thank you. Thank you very much.

Andrea The Pool Girl (53:01.855)
Um, yeah, I'm all done. Thank you for, uh, joining us. Thanks for talking to us. Like I said, sorry I was late. Um, but yeah, if everybody else wants to follow us, like us, share us, um, that's it, you know, I'm, I'm signed out of the show now.

Rudy (53:17.76)
Hey everybody again huge. Thanks Danilo. We appreciate you coming on with us. Oh, it was definitely You were fantastic and you know, we're grateful to have had you here and everybody listening. Thank you for tuning in We're grateful to have you guys here, too. So until next time be good Be safe

Danilo (53:21.526)
Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.

Andrea The Pool Girl (53:22.365)
Yeah, thank you.

Andrea The Pool Girl (53:39.711)
What's your problem? Bye!