​My favorite color palette in mosaic is white, followed by the cool blues and greens of a coastal palette. And, out of metallics, I prefer silver over gold. But for whatever reason, I’ve been on a gold kick over the last year. My latest piece, I Midas Well, incorporates a lot of gold bling. It started as merely a reason to use up some of my gold mosaic stash. 

I vacillated on the title, flip-flopping between You Midas Well, I Midas Well, or We Midas Well. I liked them all, but as I worked on the piece I reflected upon my own life. Mosaics are very time consuming, allowing ample time for one’s mind to wander and contemplate. Although I do recite daily prayers of gratitude, all too often I also catch myself saying the words “I wish…” or “I want…” It’s a terrible habit and mindset. Constantly bombarded by all things shinier, prettier, newer, or better than what I have, I do sometimes fall prey to the seduction. I am happy with what I have and feel fortunate and blessed, but dammit, I do catch myself dreaming for “…fill in the greedy blank”.  

​​I recognize the irony in this piece. It wouldn’t have been possible to create had I not been hoarding a stash of gold tesserae for decades. (Don’t think that gold is the the only color I have in excess, either). Also, although I do like the way this piece turned out, my intent is to sell it, hence, more guilty irony.
​
As I reflected, I wasn’t only thinking about material acquisition. I also value my time, as evidenced by my reluctance to give it up. My mother was a person who always said, “I’d be happy to do it.” And she sincerely was. I’d even go as far to say that being selfless was part of her identity. Although she did instill in me the value of doing the right thing and being helpful, I can’t say I’ve fully embraced, nor do I exemplify the concept like she did. I sometimes struggle with doing things because it’s the “right” thing to do versus gladly doing a selfless act because I actually "want" to do it—kind of negates the “selfless” part. Even if the result is the same, I know there is a difference and that bothers me about myself. 

The companion piece to I Midas Well, Glimmer, completes the diptych. They were made to fit and hang beside each other. It’s also a nod to the River Pactolus, using the same glass and shapes as I Midas Well, but with the addition of a few other shades of blue and specks of gold. I wanted Glimmer to contrast with the tempo of I Midas Well, by using fewer materials, less texture, a more neutral palette, and having a simplified andamento—or the way in which the mosaic flows.

And a poem to accompany the work:

​You Midas Well

Oh, King Midas
You can never have enough
Greed indeed divides us,
Look at all this stuff.
 
You are quite the character,
Though you do have none
Forever the disparager
Won’t deign to be outdone.
 
You’ve worked your magic
With those roses in your garden,
But your life is somewhat tragic
It’s her heart that you have hardened.
                                           Carolyn Wagner
​                        2024

And a poem for Glimmer

Glimmer
 
Your love trickles down like sediment
Settling on the bottom
Of my heart ever-hopeful,
Awaiting a ray of sunshine
To illuminate a speck of gold.
                                              Carolyn Wagner
                           ​2024

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I just completed only my second mosaic art piece of this year. Entitled Marsh, it was a difficult piece to create.  I enjoy creating abstract pieces with no true subject matter. One reason is that I‘m not all that confident in my ability to create realism, which makes it even more tedious than other mosaic subject matter. 
My inspiration came from the many photos I have taken over the years, and from studying the colors and forms in marshes as I drove by them.

With these images compiled in my brain, I then literally drew out a rough sketch on my phone using my finger. My intention was to create an abstract of a marsh, but as I continued to work on the mosaic, it “devolved” into more intricacies than I had planned.

Initially, I gathered an array of yummy materials and textures, but then decided that the piece would be made mostly with hand cut stained glass. Thus, another veer from my original plan.
I started with the water and cut the glass into a shape with some curvature that suggests a bit of movement.

​The sky was a little less tedious opting for larger cuts with various light blues and light greys. I used a pale blue grout for the sky.  Though finished, and even with the dimension of the grass overlay, I felt the piece still read as flat and lacked the oomph I hoped it would have.

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I have a love/love relationship with oysters. I love them fried, baked, raw, plain, dressed up with cheese, on a cracker with Tiger Sauce, and especially freshly shucked and grilled over an open flame by the shore.

I also love oyster shells. I love the organic asymmetry of the shell. The lines, forms, and shapes that inherently appear in nature almost always speak to my soul before that of manmade perfect symmetry, unless it’s in the form of a mandala, another love. And of course, I love an oyster’s little treasured gift, the pearl.  The fact that a beautiful pearl originates from a tiny, unwanted piece of grit is fascinating. Again, I like misshapen, organic pearls the most.  Keshi, blister, stick, and coin pearls are preferred over the perfectly rounded pearls of your grandmother’s tightly strung necklace.

Through the years, I’ve also created my share of oyster crafts-an oyster Christmas tree, jewelry dishes, napkin rings, ornaments, and jewelry. You can also find a few oysters in my woven art panels.

Last Christmas my daughter asked me to paint a watercolor of an oyster for her. I don’t claim to be a painter, but she was pleased with the gift. 

That watercolor, along with a gluttonous afternoon stuffing my face at the Fort Morgan Oyster Fest here in Alabama, inspired me to create my latest mosaic project: Grit, a 22" x 30" 3-D wall hanging of an oyster. You can scroll to the end of this post to watch a quick time lapse of this mosaic coming together, or if you are a mosaic nerd, you can stick with me for the step-by-step process. ​

​

1. I wanted the oyster to sit upon a background and I chose to use Wedi board, a lightweight foam substrate. I installed Wedi hanging hardware to this background substrate. This step must be done first to ensure the piece can hang.

Then, I added a skimcoat of thinset over the entire background and fingerpainted some watermarkings into the ”sand.”

I drew out a rough shape of an oyster on paper, cut it out, and traced it onto another piece of foam board. My plan was to graduate each layer, so I repeated this process three times, with each layer slightly smaller than the previous one as it stacked downward. I then adhered these pieces to each other using a combination of thinset and Weldbond. 

​Next, I carved out an indentation with an assortment of blades, mimicking the scoop that exists in many oysters. This process was a mess and I initially questioned whether I had made the right call.

I then installed more Wedi hardware in two places on the front side of the sculpture before affixing two more washers to the backside of the substrate. This was only after trips to numerous hardware stores to find a screw that was both long enough to go through the entire oyster and background, and the fit correct diameter for the Wedi hardware.  

I used Apoxie Sculpt to add some dimensional scalloped edges and to smooth out the indentation, followed by another skimcoat of thinset over the entire outer surface, and carved some details into the "hinge" portion.

1. Finally, she was ready for some mosaic bling.

.  

I used hand cut stained glass, which in this instance meant I started with sheets of stained glass and then manipulated them into the tiny tesserae. With the palette in my watercolor serving as inspiration, I chose to use more blues as opposed to purples.  I added some sparkle with just a smattering of iridescent glass.
My cutting technique was an adaptation of one I learned in a workshop with the amazing mosaicist Yulia Hanassen.(<< Click on that link. She creates wonderful work). This cut lends itself to the curvature of an oyster, far better than that of traditionally square tesserae.

Though this piece involved a tremendous amount of planning and cutting, once I started adhering, it came together fairly quickly. I was indecisive about what to do with the background, so I left that for last, but finally opted to render water with two different sizes of tempered glass. These shoreline waves were enhanced by a “foam” composed of tiny glass beads, shells, and just a few sparkly crystals.

After I finished with the tesserae, I tinted the color of the sand numerous times to try to replicate the look of wet sand surrounding the oyster, and then added a sheen to some parts with Weldbond.

Below is a video of the piece coming together, followed by a few of my favorite closeups.

Oh, and lastly there is a poem, (insert eyeroll). Many of my mosaics have an accompanying poem.  Some mosaics were inspired by my poetry and others lent themselves to verbiage. This is the latter. Zzzzzzzzzzzz   Ooops, I accidently just hit the “z” while typing.  I think I may leave it in here for some of you. Kind of appropriate at this point in this rather lengthy post, and serves as foreshadowing for the dark poem below…
 
What the Shuck? 
 
I am the irritant
Trapped inside myself
Slowly transforming
Layer by layer
Well-worn, marred
On the outside
Pry me open
Uncover nothingness
Or perhaps a tiny pearl
Hidden within the gelatinous mess of my mind,
Unhinged.
 
 

I’ve always been the family archivist and photographer. I am highly critical of the few photos that manage to catch me in front of the camera. My recent Facebook profile photo had not been changed in 6 years, and before that, it was a photo of my art.  With my recent milestone birthday approaching, I decided to bite the bullet and hire a professional to try to get at least four photos of myself that I didn’t hate before my crepey skin consumes me. My goal was to get a decent photo of me with my artwork for my website, one with my daughter, one with my dog, and one by myself.

This was a Christmas surprise for my husband, so he wasn’t included in this mix. My son lives in another state, so we’ll work on one with him later, too. I'm not gonna deny the embarrassing vanity here, I own it, but I’m only going to get older and less photo worthy. The only time as an adult other than our wedding day when I had my photo professionally taken was when I cashed in my Glamour Shot coupon in the 90’s. Need I say more? Still cringeworthy, but at least I refused the feather boa and silly hats. It was as "tasteful" as I could make it given the array of props they were pushing.

​I found this current photographer with a “professional photographers near me” google search. She was the first person to pop up. I was intrigued because though she is near me, she is also a North Carolina native and graduated from the same university that I did. It was fate.

Below are four photos I don't hate, though the photographer delivered ten-fold. I'm not posting for comments. And believe me, there was an ongoing debate with myself whether to post at all. But then again, I don't think too many people manage to find their way to this blog. I'm posting to say it was worth it.

​Find the courage to just let all the self-deprecation go for an hour or two, Do it for your partner. (He did appreciate the gesture). Or your children. Or posterity. Or dammit, just effin’ do it for yourself. Or that slide show at your funeral. Ooooh. Yeah, I went there, and I said it. But it’s true, and that clock is ticking...

Here is the link to my photographer:  ​https://www.emilybarrettphoto.com/

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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. ​

​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. ​

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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.

​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.

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I recently completed the mosaic, And Through the Woods. Personally, it’s a nod to my beloved Blue Ridge Mountains, but generally, it’s a nod to anyone’s walk in the woods. As a transplant to the coast, I have spent decades feeling my blood pressure lower as I dig my toes into the sugar white sands and gaze out at the waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico on a coast that is now my home. But I get just as much “ahhh…” when I crest a hill whose peak gives me that first glance at the mountains of my youth, and ultimately leads to a steady calm as I settle into my destination among them.
I love a hike in the woods, whether it’s with limey new growth emerging in the spring, when I’m cooled by the shade of towering evergreens in the summer, or while hearing my boots rustling through the fallen leaves of hardwoods.  I admit I do give a hard pass to those bitterly cold, blustery, winter days on a trail, unless it's in the solitude after a snowfall.
To me, a walk in the woods is more than just trees and leaves. There are clear cycles of life, decay, geology, and sometimes, even history if you look hard enough.  And Through the Woods incorporates a few of these elements and discoveries, beginning with its chosen color palette.  The varying greens obviously relate to plant life, and the browns to the forest floor- a catch all for decaying leaves, bark, and other treasures.

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Here’s the backstory on my most recent piece, #sofun. I was inspired by a seventies style retro rainbow like these that I spotted in a store. 

The rainbow prompted me to think of how I could design a wave in the same style. It involved a little math and lots of planning. I started by painting a few different designs.  I honestly find the top design more pleasing, but felt like the lower design was more on par with the retro vibe I was seeking.​

Y​ou can watch it come together if you visit my instagram page.  I am having technical difficulties getting the video to directly load here. The instagram link is below. 
 www.instagram.com/reel/CrWd4DzOkL3/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link​

I’ve also included a few closeups of the finished piece.​

I created this piece with the intention of selling it but I've decided to keep if for a while.  To me, it embodies the fun of living at the coast and I just don’t get enough chances to hang out on our beautiful beaches. 

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​I recently finished Faultline, pictured above. When I blog about a piece of my art, I usually start with the process and photos. Then, if there is an accompanying poem, I post it at the end of my blogpost, (only if I’m feeling courageous. I’m still not very comfortable with sharing poetry in public). In this post, I’m starting with the words.

With Faultline, I wrote the poem over a decade ago. A lifelong friend who also enjoys writing poetry and I have recently been exchanging a few poems, and this is one I dug out of my poetry vault. I decided to finally create a mosaic visual to go along with it. You can scroll down for more photos or hang in here with me while I describe how I arrived at the above work.
First, the preface to the poem: (Actually, it serves as the preface to any poem I write).

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Here’s a look at my latest piece, Sound of Sunshine. I live in a coastal community and take loads of photos which inspire my art. I get neither sunrise nor sunset from my property. However, I can take a short walk to the bay to get both.
 
These beautiful sunrises and sunsets teem with brilliant color, but every so often the sky is devoid of much color. As I frequently do, I took liberties with the true colors from my inspiration photo and “dumbed it down," so to speak. My plan for this piece was to be more abstract with a white sky and blue water, but I had an assortment of beautiful gold tesserae and I just couldn’t help myself.

Michael Franti, Sound of Sunshine,  (c)2010 

Locals may purchase this piece through Coastal Art Center of Orange Beach beginning March 11 during the Orange Beach Festival of Art. If you are elsewhere, please feel free to contact me.  Measuring 21"x30", Sound of Sunshine can hold its own unframed, since the sides are finished with colored thinset. If framed, I would recommend a floater frame. 
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