 Okay, I’m going to admit that sometimes I can’t believe how much of an idiot I can be. (Insert my eye roll and headshake here). Last fall, I finished a mosaic before a pending shoulder surgery. I probably should have bypassed mosaic work, but I knew I would be sidelined after surgery. I wanted to squeeze in one more piece of art if I could. There wasn’t too much cutting involved because of the shoulder issues. And, honestly, because I usually prefer to alter most precut tiles I use, this piece is not one of my favorites. Because of its orientation, (which is where my idiocy comes into play), I’m having some trouble embracing the finished piece, though I do love its color palette of white, gold, and blue.  My substrate was Wedi board, which requires pre-planning for hanging. One must think through and secure the hanging mechanisms before beginning the mosaic. I did this, and decided to use pronged t-nuts and D-rings.   I then gave the entire front side a skim coat of thinset and built up a few dimensional “berms” in various spots of this intended abstract. So far, it was headed down the path I had planned. I began laying the tesserae (bits and baubles of glass), excited and anxious to knock this out. I worked on it for an hour or two in the evenings plus some time on the weekends.  When I was about seven hours in, I needed to reposition the entire board on my worktable. I picked it up with its backside facing me and noticed the hanging mechanisms were inserted into the bottom part of the board. Wait, what? But I had put them on the top, and the blue was to be placed in the top section. Only it wasn’t. I had been in such a rush that I had built up those berms without checking to see which end was up. I had started to place the tiles onto my substrate, still without a glance at the back. It wasn’t until I picked it up to move it that I caught my mistake. Granted, it's an abstract, but damn, that is not the orientation I wanted. Ugh. I had to pivot, and the intended top had to become the bottom and vice versa. I was too far along to start over, or rip things off. It is “fine," and of course no one would know by looking at it that it’s upside down, but I just really prefer the other orientation. It is slowly growing on me, and the white background is peppered with little bits of 24 karat gold tesserae, which I do love. The blue included beautifully iridescent pieces, and the silver is reflective with some textured mirror incorporated. The textured sections were not meant to be clouds, but toward the top they do appear cloudlike to me, and the blue line looks a bit like a horizon line. Again, not as abstract as I wanted, but that’s okay. The name of this piece is Pivot. I guess that’s what we are required to do more often than we’d like. There’s a lesson in here somewhere: Slow down, take a deep breath, and learn to pivot. Here is a short video of how the piece evolved: Thanks for stopping by, 
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 My first job out of college was at my hometown television station. I worked my way in to the Promotion Department, which is where I had interned and first met Rob. The Promotion Department served as the in-house advertising agency and my colleagues were young, wise-cracking creative people that were just plain fun to be around. Rob's quick wit made our days productive but full of laughter, and the nights were usually spent hanging out at the local pub with others from the station. Rob taught me how to edit video tape when I was an intern and coached me on the finer nuances of delivering a concise and (hopefully) entertaining 30 second promotional spot. This was back in the days when you needed an entire crew of maybe five to seven people to articulate what was in your head as a writer/producer. These spots were designed to get more people to watch our station and programs, which would result in better ratings that would convince advertisers to spend their money with our station.  The old WLOS TV station Just a year older than me, Rob was tall, smart, nice, and armed with a journalism degree from the University of Georgia. He was a romantic who wore his heart on his sleeve. Rob’s close friends and I would sit back while Rob evaluated the romantic potential in many of the pretty new hires that graced the doors of the old mansion in which the station was located. Sometimes, he would land himself a date, and he always remained hopeful that it would turn into something more. And that something more was akin to a classic movie script from yesteryear. Rob's soul lived in the wholesomeness of decades past.  Rob had professional dreams that were bigger than our station and he moved on to a bigger market. He met one of his celebrity crushes (SJP) at a booked appearance and she convinced him to go after his real dream of being a screenwriter. He took her up on that and moved to California. He soon published a few short stories in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, and published a few other books and stories, too.  I clearly remember the day when I opened my mailbox and there was a promotional postcard promoting a holiday movie called Secret Santa. Rob was the screenwriter for the movie. No surprise here. He was still on his quest and had moved his heart from his sleeve to the screen. I live in a rural area, and at that time we had terrible tv reception, no cable, and did not have satellite. I was so disappointed that I couldn’t watch. But I was proud of my friend. He was making his dream come true. We eventually lost touch, but when Facebook became a thing, we reconnected, albeit only with a few "likes" here and there. At some point, one of us finally reached out for a more personal connection and we caught up on each other’s lives. Rob had enjoyed some success and had found his niche continuing to write wholesome, romantic, holiday movies. I realize that some holiday movies get a bad rap for being formulaic, but who doesn’t like a movie with a happy ending? My daughter and I have a tradition of cozying up by the fire and watching these movies during the holiday season. I didn’t realize how many of them had been written by Rob.  I last spoke with Rob this past summer, and he had just left California to start a new job outside of the industry. I wondered if it would fulfill his need for creativity, but was hopeful the move was the new start he needed. The last few years have brought quite a few losses to many of us including our family. Because of this, I’ve been on a mission to tell my family, and friends both current and from my past, how grateful I am that our paths crossed. Believe me, it is rather awkward to stumble through those words, but I did that with Rob on that phone call. I had no idea that it would be our last. I learned that Rob died suddenly mere weeks after that call, soon after settling into his new locale. I am heartbroken. This holiday season, please gather up your loved ones and tell them how much they mean to you. Just celebrate the magic of the holidays, schtick and all, and enjoy the innocence of my friend’s movies. I’ll be toasting with my cup of hot chocolate. Thank you, Rob.  Here is a list of his movies: Three Days Secret Santa 2003 (There has been a remake) Farewell, Mr. Kringle Christmas Cookies Marry Go Round Hidden Places Mortuary Girl When Christmas Was Young A Summer Romance Love Struck Café Hope at Christmas Here is his professional bio: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1086699/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm And his obituary: https://everloved.com/life-of/robert-tate-miller/ And an interview I found: https://www.fictionfinder.com/author_interview/read/interview_with_robert_tate_miller Thanks for stopping by,
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