Category: Inspiration
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Grout Study: Mixed-Media Mosaic
Artist Lorie Beercheck emailed me an in-progress photo of the mixed-media mosaic sign plaque she was making as a housewarming gift for her friends new B&B. Lorie wanted advice on the grout color. I was glad to give it because the mosaic was a mixed-media figurative image and so more likely to impacted by the…
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Mosaic Virtuosity: Stained Glass Paintings
Artist Lisa Sunshine’s stained-glass mosaics are tiny 4-inch iconic images intended for use in an illustrated alphabet series. I’m not sure whether these images are Sunshine’s own compositions or if she is using an existing illustrated series as a model, but either way the mosaics are virtuoso stuff. Sunshine’s mosaics are “impressionistic paintings” rendered in…
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Mosaic Hallucinations
The month of January is tax prep and inventory season for our glass mosaic tile business, and it’s been a stressful time each and every year for 20 years, at least for a week or two or certain days. This year is particularly stressful for a variety of reasons: unprecedented inflation, weak sales, bookkeeper gone…
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Mosaic Door First Full Revision
My Mosaic Door Project was something I had never done before: combining a work of art that was being made for magical/spiritual reasons with a commitment to FINALLY start doing a good job of photographing my artwork as I work and creating good teaching examples. I’m the guy that has never photographed vacations and wilderness…
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“Crazy Good Art”
Sometimes I feel like a thoughtless child when I catch myself using expressions that show a lack of sensitivity for people suffering. Other times I feel like the expression in question has some insight or specitivity when used in certain contexts, no matter how overused or unfortunate the term might be in general. “Crazy good”…
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Mosaic Door Progress
This is an update on my Mosaic Door project built from a “series of smalls“, which is the most effective way to improve artistic confidence and ability. A “series of smalls” is more than a simplistic example of practice makes perfect. You can practice by painting works of all sizes and painting many different types…
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Santa Fe Rail Trail Mosaic
Artist Julie Deery is working on a mosaic mural for the wall of the Santa Fe Rail Trail. The location for the mosaic mural is 130 feet of cinderblock wall along the Rail Trail just north of Siringo Road in Santa Fe. The theme of the project is “Generations” with the goal of having community…
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Subtle Color Variegation
I wanted to share more photos of Jill Gatwood’s Mosaic Butterfly commission because it is a good example of subtle use of color variegation when fairly uniform color fields are desired. I often recommend using color variegation (a mix of related hues or shades of a particular hue) as an alternative to monochromatic areas of…
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Underestimating Grout Gaps
Artist Harry Belkowitz’s millefiori mosaic Dove of Peace is a mixed-media piece of artwork with a black painted background surrounding the central mosaic figure. The rainbow silhouette of dove with olive branch might be a little aspirational right now, but I figured we all could use a little hope and beauty. The Dove of Peace…
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Amazing Commission
I have survived the stress of managing the supply business during the pandemic/supply crisis so far only by allowing myself periods when I get very slack in responding to non-crisis emails. I tell myself I will get back to them eventually, but sometimes eventually is a long time. Most emails that can be ignored for…
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Multiple Modes of Andamento
First-time mosaic artist John Schroeder’s Celestial Transom Mosaic is something of a tour-de-force in combining different styles of andamento into a seamless composition. Kids, Don’t Try This at Home Combining different styles of andamento in a mosaic is something I would never recommend to a first-timer. It’s easier to figure out one way of working…
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Blue Crab Mosaic Relic
My dear old friend Jay Brown had been requesting a mosaic of a blue crab for years, and this past week Jay had his official investiture as a federal judge, and so I decided it was time. Art with a Capital A Normally I avoid bespoke commissions like the plague because I have trouble keeping…