In this mosaic, the turquoise mosaic gold heart and waves represent the connection that the coral has to the water, to its beloved. The coral is forever embraced by its beloved, and the waves of this love radiate out into infinity.
OSU № 4 and № 5 of 5
Good to have this project finished! I completely forgot to take pics of № 2 and № 3, but they do all look basically the same.
I intentionally made very minor changes amongst the five in the background buildings so each one would be different. Also, the sky is a little different on each one with variations in the amount of movement. I worked the sky free form, without a pattern, and I think I enjoyed that part the most of the whole project.
OSU Commission, № 1 of 5
So, that potential commission that I blogged about did come through after all. It was a bit of a lengthy, touch-and-go kind of process, and I actually thought it had gone and was not going to happen. But then, after another month, I heard from them and they were ready to move on it.
Oklahoma State University is developing a medical complex in downtown Tulsa. It is not complete yet, but they wanted mosaics of the skyline with the actual and future OSU buildings. It was not easy to get the right view as the complex is rather spread out. They wanted five “table top” pieces, which they defined as being as much as 24” wide. Eventually, they were able to get a couple of good Google Earth images from which I could work.
Below is the image that I used to create the to-scale drawing that follows. The Google Earth image was very small, however, and it was tricky to translate some of the buildings and/or features. In a 9” x 24” mosaic, on their time frame and within their budget, I could not get very detailed. We needed to bring out the OSU buildings and visually tie them together, even though the complex is not finished. So I honed in on the OSU orange and used it, along with more detail, to help make the OSU buildings visually prominent. So all the front buildings with the bright orange are the OSU buildings. The background buildings that look a paler orange are actually more of a terra cotta color, which you can see in the finished first mosaic.
Initially, they wanted all five—gifts for donors—by Christmas, but I was not comfortable committing to that. So they asked for three of them by Christmas. Confident that I could do that, and with an approved budget, we signed a contract, effective Oct. 1.
I started the first one (below) before Oct. 1, as I had material on hand and really wanted to get a good idea of how much time I needed, how much detail I could manage, and generally work out any issues. I am now starting the second one.
The vitreous glass is a mix of French Opio and Italian Bisazza, and also Trend. Yes, that Bisazza is old, as well as the Opio, neither of which are available now, although Bisazza is basically Trend now, if I have that right. I priced the work for them using either vitreous or smalti and they chose the vitreous. It is less expensive, I had a good amount in inventory, and I thought it more practical for this project, considering the time issue. I knew I would be using a lot of straight cuts and thought vitreous would be a little easier—translate to faster—than smalti. Still, vitreous has its own issues, like dealing with those darned mitered edges. And the Opio is the hardest vitreous I have every worked with!
The only issue that I encountered was the grout. I was hoping to use a single color for the sky as for the non-sky, but after grouting it all in a mix of half gray thin set and half white, I thought the sky grout lines were a little too dark. However, I did not want to go any lighter for the non-sky part. I felt like it was important for the grout lines to show to help give definition for the buildings and the mid-gray works well for the buildings, whether light or dark. So I reworked the sky grout using 2-1 parts of white to gray thin set and was much happier with it.
Their initial idea was for the five smaller panels, and then a very large one to be installed in one of the buildings. I don’t think the idea for the large mosaic has been settled upon yet.
End-of-Malaise Bottle?
Since last November, I’ve been totally lacking in mosaic motivation. I attempted a couple of projects only to leave them lingering on my work table, destined to be abandoned. At first, I was a little concerned, but I decided to just go with it and see what happened. If, after some unidentified period of time, I still lacked mosaic mojo, so be it. I’ve just been living life without mosaicking for almost a year, and it has been a very productive time, just not mosaically.
Then, a few of weeks ago, I invested a good chunk of my weekend on a possible commission design. The potential client had been trying to work out a project for months. Each time I thought I would not hear from them anymore, I would hear from them. So, once again, they contacted me and I really did want to help them resolve things, moving ahead with or without me.
I prepared a design with which I could give good cost and time estimates and sent it to them. I highly suspected it was beyond their budget as well as time frame, but I gave it my best shot. Not having heard back from them, I am once again guessing that they have moved on without me.
Spending the time on that design was very good for me, however, and I think it helped to prod me back to mosaic. Well, time will tell about that. Anyway, I decided to mosaic a bottle while I was developing an art piece idea. And here is the bottle.
The main shape of the bottle was easy to work with. The 1/4” squares were cut to size by Mosaics By Maria. The top, however, proved to be a little more demanding. I ended up having to wedge most of the top pieces. It’s not my favorite palette, but I the materials left over from something else.
It did actually feel good to have a project again, and I think I am ready to move on to the art piece. Perhaps my mosaic doldrums have come to an end? Let’s find out!
Woolaroc Entrance Mosaic
Mosaic at Entrance to Woolaroc Museum. Artist Unknown.
I visited Woolaroc Wildlife Preserve and Museum with my grandsons and their other grandma last week. It was extremely hot that day and I was thankful that the preserve is a drive-thru thing. We saw bison, zebras, immus, water buffalo, ostriches, European deer, and many more.
The museum has an impressive collection of Western and Native American art and artifacts. The mosaics at the entrance seem to be smalti and are nicely done. I could not find a single staff person around to ask about who the artist is, and my Google search did not yield the answer.
Sold!
I am so pleased to have my most ardent supporter and most prolific collector add Theme and Variations: All Dreams, to their mosaic art collection. They now own three of the works from my Music To My Eyes series, along with a few other pieces.
I will certainly miss this one, but how thrilling it is to sell such a large work! It will be quite the chore to ship it and hang it, but it will be stunning in it’s new home.
Switching Gears
I wrote last week about how I have been in quite a creative slump, but that I was determined to finish a little, fun piece that I started at the end of last year. Well, I am out of determination. It just was not working for me. Have you ever just lost interest in a project? Silly question, right? I really hate to add another unfinished mosaic to my list but it, at least, has company.
I’m going to mosaic a pair of bottles, also started back in November before I lost interest in them. I now understand that my lack of interest was not only mosaic oriented, but more of a general malaise that spilled over into my creative drive, resulting in an existential foray into questions about life and purpose. My mind just loves that kind of stuff, and that is for both good and ill, I believe.
Time to move on! Here is a pair of interestingly-shaped tequila bottles. I don’t remember the brand. My husband brought home one bottle a few years ago. I thought the shape just called out for a mate, so I found another one. I drew the pattern on last November and then proceeded to abandon them on a work table for all these months.
I’ll be using Orsoni #10 gold for the lines, and an off-white marble for the rest (at least I think I have decided on an off-white marble). I have not decided on the andamento for the marble yet, whether I want it to be the same throughout—like vertical—or whether I will do something contrasting between the sections that will be created by the lines of gold. I’ll start with the gold and then decide. The shape of the bottles does present some challenge no matter what I decide for the marble.
So, to work!
Been Slumpin'
As you can see, my last blog post was in November when I finished the rooster commission. That commission is the last mosaic I completed. I’ve not been able to find the motivation to work much since then. Sure, I started something in December, only to leave it sit, and sit, and sit on my work table. I’ve been in quite a slump.
In the last month, I’ve made a bit of progress on it (above) and am determined to finish it. And I will. But I’ve never experienced such a prolonged lack of motivation to mosaic. I’ve questioned whether it is time for me to let it go and move on. To what, I don’t know.
But I am not ready to let it go. I sense there is more mosaic in me. Curious, though, as to why I might be experiencing this. As distressing as it is to lack motivation, inspiration, and a need to create, I think this is actually a good thing.
I do believe that Covid has a lot to do with it. The isolation of the last year has left me feeling unplugged, which I suppose makes sense for the state of isolation. Being unplugged, I have lost any sense of competition—or trying to prove myself—which I can now see was a contributing aspect of my creative motivation. I can see it now only due to its lack.
There has been a sense of what’s the use? And I have found that to be a very important question. Indeed, what is the use? Maybe there is no use if I’m solely motivated by a need to prove myself. I went through a few months where my mantra was I just don’t care. Again, distressing, but at the same time, liberating.
Some days, I felt like it should just be enough to get through the day—to do some laundry, go to the store, cook dinner, play some piano or chess, exercise a bit, sit outside in the sun with our dog Lucy. Why can’t that be enough? Do I need to be Jacqueline Iskander mosaic artist to be happy? To be fulfilled? To feel worthy?
No. I found I was fairly content. I just needed to give myself some time to move through this. First, I gave myself until the end of January to reassess things. Then until the end of February. Well, here we are moving through April and I’m feeling the need to do something about this stalemate.
I’m trying to finish that little piece I started back in December, and it is a bit of an effort. It is a departure for me and I’ve struggled to keep with it. It was just meant to be fun, and that seems to have taken the fun out of it for me. Again, back to what’s the use? Why can’t fun just be enough? Especially with creativity. Because of that need to prove something? To produce serious art? To prove that I am an artist?
So, the inner struggle to understand who I might be if I am not trying to prove something continues. I have a few ideas for future work, but they are all just bouncing around in my head and nothing yet bubbling up to the surface. I’m trying to be okay with this and give it more time. Trying to resist thoughts like: If I quit, what would I do with all this stuff? What would I do with the rest of my life? And I find myself in a place I’ve found myself a few times before in my life, that of breaking free of an identity.
Thank you Covid!
Rooster Commission Finished
This rooster is heavily inspired by a photo provided by the client. They did not want the rooster to be in a natural environment and requested something more plain.
I really enjoyed this project as I don’t usually work with so much color. However, working those tail feathers in that andamento was a challenge.
At left is a photo taken from a perspective slightly below and looking a bit upward. I was trying to capture more iridescence. Tricky. But I like the way you can see a little dimensionality in the rooster feet. The vitreous is thinner than the smalti so he does pop a bit from the background.
As for the edges, the clients were not sure if they wanted to frame it and wanted the edges to be done in a way as to be acceptable without a frame. I did not want to take the vitreous all the way to the edge because that kind of edge is vulnerable to chipping and tiles coming loose over time. I handled it in a manner that I thought was interesting on its own but that could also be covered up with a frame.
The background colors were chosen to coordinate with the countertop, at right.
Sales at Sky Gallery
What a great little surprise yesterday, a day otherwise known at our house as election-day-from-hell. 😎Several of my things sold at Sky Gallery, here in Tulsa on Route 66, in the last weeks. My two art pieces, No Such Thing As Time and Out! were two of the sales. Also sold were a few magnets and a notecard. Isn’t that nice!
Of course, sales are great! But some are a bit sad too. It’s really hard to part with No Such Thing As Time, as it is one of my favorites.
Gaglio Rooster Commission, in progress
This pretty boy is coming along. The tail feathers on the rooster used for inspiration are so pretty in shades of blue and teal, with iridized highlights. I was actually excited to tackle the feathers and was absurdly confident. So I decided to use this kind of feather/leaf andamento with relatively thin strips, so I could try for shading and color gradations, mixed with iridescent highlights.
After the first two feathers—the topmost ones, not including the darker interior of them— I was asking myself that old familiar question: What the heck was I thinking? But, no matter, it was just a momentary panic. I recovered quickly and embraced the just keep going mantra.
At this point, I’m happy with it and am sure it will be so worth the effort. I think he’s going to be gorgeous!
Tulsa Artists' Coalition Annual Members Show at Hardesty Arts
Previous posts about Interior Frequencies
Yesterday, my family and I made it out to see the TAC Annual Members Show at the Hardesty Arts gallery. This is my absolute favorite exhibition space in town. There were COVID precautions in place, including limiting the number of people there at a time. Interior Frequencies was the only mosaic in the show, but it still had a very good spot. I’m happy about that.
The gallery did a really interesting thing to help educate and engage the audience. They put out a basket of tiny pompoms of different colors. Each color represented a metric by which art is judged (see below). Gallery goers are invited to apply these metrics. Vials are installed next to some of the artworks to collect the pompoms as people judge the works by the color-coded metric.
I don’t know what process was used to select which works would be featured for this, but mine is one of them and has already earned plenty of pompoms. I think it’s a great idea and my family and I participated in this exercise ourselves.
Here are some highlights of the show. Enjoy!
Gaglio Rooster Commission, in progress
Previous Posts
I got off to a slow start on this fella, but I’m into it now. I started with the comb and have now gone back and reworked a bit of it twice. It’s better. Now, I’m not sure about that very small, red, wing-like area, but I’ll wait and see if I can live with it.
Ah, smalti! Sometimes, I absolutely hate working with it. It is so messy and hard to cut. But then, I look at that color and gorgeous reflective quality and… well, it is worth it!
When it’s finished, I will use a wash of charcoal colorant and water on it to tone down the gray thin set. I prefer this to coloring the thin set, if I can get away with it, because that black thin set is so darn messy.
Good Wednesday Morning to ya!
From West to East
My little coral heart, from the waters off the Big Island of Hawaii, has found its home in New Brunswick, Canada.
In this mosaic, the turquoise mosaic gold heart and waves represent the connection that the coral has to the water, to its beloved. The coral is forever embraced by its beloved, and the waves of this love radiate out into infinity.
Apparently, the waves radiated all the way to eastern Canada, to someone who heard this little love story and was touched by it. How perfect!
Accepted!!!
Previous Posts About Interior Frequencies
My Wednesday started with the excellent news that the above work, Interior Frequencies, was juried into the TAC (Tulsa Artists Coalition) Annual Members Show. This show will be held at the Hardesty Arts Center in the Tulsa Arts District, which is a gorgeous exhibition space.
I’m so thrilled with this! And quite surprised! Wall space is, of course, limited, and they chose to give a large space to mosaic! This is so awesome!
The exhibit will run Oct. 2 - Dec. 16.
Gaglio Rooster Commission
A couple in Florida recently rebuilt their home after Hurricane Michael damaged most of it. They really wanted a rooster backsplash behind the stove, but design considerations led them to have the stove in a new curved island. Still, they wanted a rooster in the kitchen, and they wanted it to be portable—to be hung as an artwork above the countertop (image below) in a cabinet alcove. The walls are a soft gray.
Years ago, they had purchased a 17” x 17” original rooster painting from a local artist, and they initially asked me to create the design in mosaic. I approached the artist about copying his design and the response was that a licensing fee would be required. The clients did not want to pursue it at that point, so we went about designing a new rooster.
They found a couple of free-to-share images that they liked and I used those to inform my design. Specifically, they really liked the puffed-out chest and full tail feathers of one of the roosters. They wanted a plain background.
The rooster will be done in smalti, with some iridescent highlights, and the background in vitreous, also with some iridescent highlights. I created the cartoon using the Procreate app, using a palette created with the materials shown in the above Rooster Palette. My Procreate skills are modest, at best, but it’s fun to work with. After conferring with the clients, I decided to eliminate a couple of the lighter background shades. They are pleased with the design and happy that I was able to harmonize the mosaic background with the countertop.
Next, I’ll probably draw in some andamento lines and then I am ready to get started on this. Fortunately, I have most of the materials in stock. I did have to order a little more teal and cobalt iridescent tile as I have very little of that.
New Sky Gallery in Tulsa, OK
There is a new little gallery opening here in Tulsa, on Route 66, around 11th and Rockford. It’s a nice little strip with other artsy shops and places to eat. I’m pleased to be able to display some of my decorative pieces, as well as a few small-to-medium art pieces.
Above is my little bit of wall space for some art pieces. The gallery has its grand opening Oct. 3.
Beautiful Wreckage
Isn’t this just awesome!!
About a week ago, our yard people were working in our back yard and accidentally propelled some object at warp speed smack into our laundry room back door. I heard a loud crack and went looking for it. I thought maybe a delivery guy had too enthusiastically thrown a package onto the front porch? No, no deliveries.
As I was walking around the downstairs searching for something amiss, I heard a weird sound coming from the kitchen? No. The laundry room. I had no idea what this sound was: a crackling. Then I saw the laundry room door. Wow! And it just kept crackling for several minutes. Freaked me out.
We are now waiting for it to be repaired, but it looks pretty amazing doesn’t it? At night, when it is dark and the outside light is on, it’s totally mesmerizing! I love it.
Above shows the area from whence everything started, after the big bang, so to speak. The image at the top of the post is a zoomed-in capture of this area.
Studies in Moderation: How Did I Do?
Yes, just last week I said that I was doing three more studies to make a total of twelve. However, there have been a couple of developments that have led me to decide that enough is enough.
Firstly, I’ve had enough. I feel like I have achieved my initial goal of relaxing my technique and executing a looser cutting and laying. I’m mostly pleased with the results from this study. I believe №s 5, 7, and 8 are the most successful. It’s amazing how hard I had to work at this!
Secondly, a commission has come my way and I am excited to switch gears and do something that is someone else’s idea for a change. After the commission, I’ve got some ideas for a few art pieces that should take me through the end of the year and I’m really excited about those too! Not sure how I might incorporate the learnings of these studies into future work, but I trust that I will.
So, how did I do? I’ll review this process, study by study, that started in June of this year. My intention was not to create works of art. Rather, my intention was to define some parameters within which I could explore something different.
№ 1 I was seriously—or so I thought—being less obsessive about my cuts and placement, although it does not at all show. My progress was so minor but it was a first step—a step that showed me that I needed to keep stepping.
The spring clips are fun to work with, but the areas that the placements create are very small and a challenge to fill.
№ 2 I made visible progress on this one, in both the filling of the spring clip areas and the marble background. Still, the cutting overall looks too precise for what I wanted to achieve. As I worked on this, I was fighting every instinct to be more precise—obsessively precise, to not allow some space between the pieces. I felt like it was too loose, too sloppy. My goodness! I was really getting a lot of insight as to my own frame of reference.
The background is Emperador marble and I so 💗 this marble! Just look at all that variation with a single stone!
№ 3 This one was a bit of a backtrack on the previous one. It is a little less loose and more controlled and is certainly not a step forward. I’m not sure why this happened but I think it has something to do with the background design bringing out my inclination for clean, straight lines.
I really do like this one though. I love the marble and travertine mix of the background and the beautiful Mexican smalti. And I love the mixed-direction linear background.
№ 4 I moved forward in this one regarding the spacing of the tessera, however the cutting of the stone background is more precise than I had hoped. I found myself challenged in employing this more formal and complex andamento, as in № 1. However, the smalti sun was so loose that I had to restrain myself from redoing it.
The Azul Bahia granite and blue sodalite were a joy to work with due to the sheer force of their color. Blue rocks! How fabulous Creation is!
№ 5 Alright, a giant leap for Jackie-kind! This one is absolutely loose by my standards. I exaggerated it as much as I could muster and this is the result. I was equally excited and horrified! The horizontal background was easy to execute loosely and not too traumatic, but those leaves nearly gave me an anxiety attack. Okay, a slight exaggeration.
I hesitated to do a tree as I thought it too cliché, but I had done a sun so why not! And I like the way the tree came together.
№ 6 Like № 4, the background spiral has a more relaxed spacing, but overall I think it looks too precisely cut. Again, a somewhat formal and complicated andamento was a bit of an obstruction to achieving what I was shooting for.
I did the background spiral freehand, without an initial design, and it turned out fairly well. I thought that not having a specific pattern might contribute to a looser execution. For the most part, it did not. There are a couple of rough cuts that I would not normally accept, but otherwise it looks fairly precise.
№ 7 I was beginning to feel that the spring clips in such a small format were limiting. It could have been just that I was getting bored—which I easily do—but I felt like I needed to switch gears. And I’m glad I did. This one is definitely progress!
I managed to employ aspects of a more formal, flowing andamento and still achieve a looseness and relaxation. Very happy with this one.
The materials and palette are striking.
№ 8 Just another version of № 8 with a slightly more relaxed spacing but less dynamic background andamento.
Although a very simple, uncomplicated design, I like this one. The mix of materials is very pretty and each compimentary of the others. I find myself surprised that I like this a little more than № 7, which I think is artistically better. Weird!
№ 9 I have no idea where this concept came from and it did not help to advance my goal. I should have continued along the lines of № 7 and № 8 as that would have given me more space to further explore my objective.
The background marble is one that I got years ago from Mosaic Rocks!, from dear Bill Buckingham. It is similar to Emperador but it is call St. Laurent. I find it to be more dense than Emperador and easier to control. It has a similar, if less rich, degree of variation in color.
№ 10 Same concept as № 9 but with a more challenging background andamento. I wanted to see how much of that movement I could express in such limited space.
The concept of large pieces of gold intersected with contrasting wisps of color is visually appealing to me and I may explore it in a larger format at some point.
This one shows no progress beyond № 7 and № 8, which is why I feel I have exhausted the limits of the study at this time.
In summary, I’m very happy that I invested the last three months on this study. I feel it was very worthwhile. And it was fun and liberating to not be trying to make art. I hope I can carry forth more fun and freedom in my future work.