notes

Every time I see trees against the sky like this I want to mosaic it...

 

 And this burnt piece of tree looks like a good luck elephant, no?

new kelp mosaic

Just stopped by the latest job...

butterfly progress

I like the way this is turning out...

this week in the dungeon

There's a lot going on in the dungeon these days. I have several students that spend much of their free time here, plus a bunch of others that make appearances at least weekly. Here are some pics of work being done right now by students...I am in awe

flower centers for a repair job

details from my friend Aiyana's project

she hand-paints rocks...

we are making a fire breathing dragon for a dungeon sign

 

koi mosaic

A few years ago at Coronado High we did a big installation in the hallway of the math building. The teacher who was the driving force behind this project later commissioned me to do a piece in her back yard, on an outdoor fireplace chimney. She gave me total artistic freedom, which is my absolute favorite thing. I ended up doing a koi pond, but instead of the usual looking down on the tops of the fish, I made it seem as if the viewer was in the pond with the fish. To this day, this is one of my very most favorite mosaics, ever. It was with this piece that I really started thinking about andamento, flow and tesserae placement a lot.

My memories of this job include: hot summer days, working alone and listening to Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, his biography of Shakespeare, and Travels in a White Man's Grave by Donald Macintosh on audiobook. The clients were out of town, and I got to jump in the pool whenever I wanted to. Sometimes I'd bring along my little African dog...

Thanks, Sandy Fish (yes, fish for the Fish)

the before picture

Here is the sketch

Here are some shots of the work in progress. I made all the aquatic grass (fresh water seaweed, a term I learned with this mosaic job) and fish in studio and did all the water on site. This mosaic is made of stained glass, river rocks and mirror.

grouting the finished mosaic

design for kelp mosaic

I'm using this blog to archive not only day to day mosaic progress but also sketches and cartoons that have or will become mosaics. This is the cartoon for an outdoor shower in Coronado, CA.

  

I am so happy that the recipient of this mosaic let me do as I would. I really enjoyed the process.

Here are previous sketches, each the result of discussions with Mr. Client.

This is the installed mosaic, before the stucco or the shower head.

 

I really like the andamento in the water. And the kelp glass is getting harder and harder to find. It's called Uroboros, and I dread the day when they stop making this beautiful material. 

All the silver fish are made from mirror and are designed to swim through the finished wall. A warm beige stucco is to go around the mosaic. 

I wish to thank my helpers, Sarah Bouscaren and Elizabeth Austin for everything...

butterfly progress...

This is going to go in a client's back yard, suspended from a metal frame so that light can shine through from behind. I really like how the monarchs are coming out, although as usual it is far more work than I imagined it would be. You'd think by now I'd be good at gauging such things... 

shiny pieces

Mr. Snizzles, Coronado High School

I am now officially a blogging fool. But its nice to have some incentive to archive the work that we do down here in our underground mosaic studio. I work as a mosaic artist, taking commissions and jobs pretty much whenever they come along. I also teach high school kids and will soon be teaching adults. At this point in my life, I feel like my portfolio stands on its own and I am very proud of it. But each day only a few pieces get glued into place...so this blog will be dedicated to the small victories and failures in our work as students and artists. Mostly, this blog is just for me, but I'll try to make it interesting for you, too.

Peace and Love,
Kirstin Ann Green