When Mitch Freeman was creating his first ceramic tile at Piedmont College, he didn't know that he would eventually create one of his personal masterpieces: "Tile."

"I didn't know how this glaze was going to come out (on the tile) and I didn't know the porcelain was going to turn white and I didn't know that this iron would come out like that," said Freeman, who is a professional artist as well as an art teacher at Gainesville Middle School.

"But when it came out I knew that I wanted to make more and that is when I decided to change the shape to have two separate pieces."

At the time Freeman created "Tile" he was studying to receive his master's degree in art education at Piedmont College and he put in extra time and money to create the ceramic tile piece.

"Tile" is made of 93 individual tile pieces, each one different. And these aren't simply pieces you'd use on your kitchen sink's backsplash.

"Each one was handmade and each one had to go through a tremendous amount of working," he said. "Total time to make the project was six months. It went through two firing cycles - every single little groove that you see was handmade with a nail. So it is extremely intricate and extremely detailed. There are two different size tiles."

The piece is listed for sale on Freeman's Web site, and he said the piece could be a way to bring the outside into an interior space.

"I would like to see this in a contemporary home that they incorporate the outside living space with the inside," said Freeman, who placed in the 2006 Art in the Square in downtown Gainesville.

If you have a monochromatic wall or a part of your home covered in smooth concrete, he said, tiles could be an appropriate addition to the decor.

The inspiration for "Tile" came from a burnt pecan tree that was hit by lightning at his mother's home in Charleston, S.C.

Freeman said there are several elements of the ceramic piece that make it interesting.

"You don't just look at it one time," he said. "You can keep coming back to it at different times of the day or different seasons. The wide parts are done with a hammer and the flat parts are done with a screw driver and then the vertical ones are done with a knife.

"Each one is separate, had to be made, had to air dry, it had to be fired so it would be solid and go from clay to ceramic and then I would glaze it and then fire it."

Freeman creates art in other mediums, too, including watercolors, acrylics, pen and ink and marble sculpture.

You can see Freeman's painting at shows at the Quinlan Visual Arts Center in Gainesville and at Inman Perk on the downtown square.

Coming up for Freeman is the Elephant Show London 2010, one of the largest art shows in London.

"Each artist is sponsored or given donations for the cost of the fiberglass elephant," Freeman said. "... After each Elephant is completed they will be placed across London from May to July 2010. At the end of the exhibit, each elephant will be auctioned off at Sotheby's Auction House and the money given to Elephant Family for their goals and facilitation of the Asian Elephants."