Windows to the Wild — Public Installation by Elizabeth Raybee

I had the complete pleasure of hosting mosaic celeb Elizabeth Raybee in my home this last Sunday evening. She was heading back home to California after over a month on the road for her cross-country friends and family tour.

What a delightful human being she is! We talked and talked and talked, and I was amazed at how plugged-in she is to public mosaic stuff in all corners of the world. She also has a farm with sheep and chickens and pears and walnuts and who knows what else! She kindly brought us some homemade pear butter and we sampled her very own Walnut Liqueur... tasted like dessert!

I would like to spread the word about a cool public project on which Elizabeth is working and would like some help. Find out more about Windows to the Wild here. 

Fragile Heart

I've got a bit of a head-start on my next project. A few years ago, I started a small piece that was more of an exercise. I needed something to putter around with while I was waiting for some materials to come in for a large commission.

Attempting to confront my aversion to working with red, I decided to work on some color gradation. At the time, I was pondering heartache, sadness - matters of the heart. This was around the time that I had to make the very difficult decision to put down a family dog. Several other life changes were also happening at the time.

Above is where I left the 9" x 11" exercise when my commission work resumed. I liked it and thought I might finish it someday, so I held onto it. As I was working on my last piece, If I Were A Tree, I entertained the idea that this old exercise would be my next project.

As my mind shifted to my exercise becoming a finished work, my concept for it began to evolve. I wanted it to be bigger and to fit my Impromptu series. I began to see how to accomplish this, but I would have to make some changes.

In order to enlarge the 1/4" Wedi substrate from 11" x 14", I cut a 13" x 16" piece of 1/2" Wedi. Next, I cut 2" strips of 1/4" Wedi. Then, I spread a layer of thinset on the 1/2" substrate, anchored the original 1/4" substrate in the lower left corner, and filled out the top and right sides with the 2" strips of 1/4" Wedi. After leaving it to cure, I added the washers and bolts and attached a wood frame to the back. 

I removed pieces in two areas, shown in the black circles above, in order to retrofit the washers. Now, its ready and waiting for me, as soon as I am ready.

As it turns out, I have a new dose of unwelcome inspiration for this piece. My younger brother died 8 days ago. He had congestive heart failure and left us, it seems peacefully, in his sleep. He was a loner, a bit of a recluse, and suffered some deep wounds in his adult life. I'll be contemplating the inevitability of hurt and loss as I work on this, and I'll dedicate this mosaic, currently titled Fragile Heart, to my brother.

New Blog, New Work

Yes, its new blog time. I'm happy to have my blog incorporated with my website, but it means I must leave my old Tumblr. I've got some good information and posts on my old blog, which you can find here. 

So let's kick-off my new blog with my latest mosaic.

If I Were A Tree 32" x 48" | 81cm x 122cm. Mosaic gold, shale, marble, smalti, porcelain, ammonite fossil. (Click image for more detail.)

This fantastical tree is a bit of a departure for me. It has been wanting to be created for a few years, but I kept rationalizing it away. Then, last May, it just seemed to get started. I'm not sure what the title means; it just seemed to attach itself to the work... very sneaky. 

Maybe, if I were a tree, this is the kind of tree I would like to be. I would be strong and graceful. I would have leaves of fire or be a perennial fall tree, as fall is my favorite season. Clearly, it seems that I would be a very large tree, towering over the river and mountains.

The landscape was executed in a completely spontaneous manner. It rather created itself, and I thoroughly enjoyed discovering this land of river and mountains. The background was very technically challenging, seemed like it would never end, and got the better of me on a few occasions.