NEXT CLASS: Jan. 27-29, 2012 – sign up today! Click this link:
http://www.instituteofmosaicart.com/classes/current/class_va_kruz3.html

More on Michael’s courses HERE

“Corinthian” Winner 2010 Juror’s Choice Award Mosaic Arts International 2010

As Juror, I selected “Corinthian”, shown above, to exhibit in the 2009 Tesserae: Art of Mosaics  show in Long Beach, California.

and you can’t argue with this hot, oily Roman hunk…

“The Ides of March” 2008 (Stone and Smalti) 13.5”x21”

Michael is gaining a reputation not only as a classicist working in both stone and smalti, but for his contemporary and captivating series of mosaic portraits “Heroes wth Bling” honoring San Francisco’s most notorious gender illusionists, that’s right, Drag Queens.

I LOVE this one:

“Sylvester” 2011, Stone, Smalti, Turquoise , broken china and inset jewelry 31” x 23” $ 5000. Received Director’s Choice Award at Infinity Art Gallery Figurative Expo 2011

Michael is a thoughtful, warm and generous teacher. Enjoy!

Sweida, Syria - damaged Roman mosaic depicting bathing women, photo courtesy SANA

Looks like the famous mosaic “bikini girls” may have some competition!

A recent Syrian excavation depicts everyday Roman life, including a nude bathing scene. The Sweida discovery is being considered one of the most beautiful mosaics in the country. Hard to tell much from this photo, and I hope to find better pictures of the site.

The good news is the Syrian site is being protected and conserved with the assistance of ICCM, an international organization dedicated to the conservation of ancient mosaics.

full story here: A Roman Mosaic Painting in Sweida , One of the Most Beautiful and Unique Paintings in Syria  - SANA, Syria.

Notice the figures on the left of each mosaic. The leg positions are nearly identical,  above in Syria, and below in Sicily…

"Bikini Girls" Villa Casale, Piazza Armerina, Sicily - photo by Lillian Sizemore

UPDATE: 4:00PM

BELOW: Here’s a modern one-to-one scale reproduction by Marco deLuca of Ravenna, Italy, I photographed at his studio in October 2011…The muse lives on!!  Is that frame drum she’s playing? Or a discus throw?

Above: molecular structure of Thrombin -  A clotting agent already found in the blood.  Thrombin is being layered onto sponges that can stop bleeding almost immediately. (image via Wikimedia)

via MIT’s Nano-Bio-Bandage Can Stop Your Bleeding Almost Immediately | Popular Science.

Ramp up your skill set with this this exquisite glass material that has been used since the Byzantine era. Explore working with traditional tools of hammer and hardie. Make an 8″x 8″ piece and revel in this jewel-like material. Beginners welcome.

of an eternal dance of circles

- Rabindranath Tagore

Wishing you Peaceful Evenings and Joyful Daybreaks.

Thank you so much for visiting,  following and sharing The Mind’s Eye Blog this year.  

Here’s to a magnificent 2012

~ Lillian

All photos by Lillian Sizemore © 2011

A behind the scenes peek at the ancient Roman Mosaic from Lod Israel, now on view in Chicago at the Field Museum. See this massive undertaking in action as a portion of the pavement is prepared to tour the US. This video gives a look at the excavation site and lifting and conserving the sections. It is the largest and most beautiful mosaic ever discovered in Israel. 5 minutes, produced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Click HERE to see the video.

This highly-detailed and eloquent masterpiece sparks the imagination and inspires awe at the sheer massive scale measuring in at 27 feet long by 13 feet wide. Yep, It’s a Whale of a Pavement. (ok, I said it.) The Lod Mosaic is one of the world’s most intact and best preserved ancient limestone mosaics. Experts are dating the work from 215-300 AD.

Whales: Giants of the Deep comes from the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand. The Whale exhibition gives viewers an in-depth look at  the complex relationship between whales and the people of the South Pacific.

With a bit of imagination, we can ride in the belly of the Whale all the way over to the Mediterranean Basin, where the Lod Mosaic was discovered in Israel. The Lod Mosaic shows us how Roman merchant ships navigated the stormy seas, and clearly this was a dangerous proposition requiring protection from mythical sea monsters. Archaeologists suggest that the lower panel of the Lod Mosaic may have been a tribute or an ex-voto, commissioned as an an expression of gratitude for surviving a shipwreck.

Romans also had an intimate relationship with the sea, and at the time the Lod was made the shipping trade was at its zenith. Wealthy merchants sailed fleets trading everything from the Roman fish sauce, called garum,  to exotic animals, olive oil, and wine.

Both the ‘Whales of the Deep’ and the ‘Natural Wonder’ exhibits will give museum-visitors an inside view of  how our lives have been inextricably linked with these giants of the deep.

And anyway, where else can you climb right into a life-sized whale heart? 

I will be demonstrating mosaic methods at the  ARTIST -AT -WORK DEMONSTRATION

SATURDAY DEC. 10,  11 AM to 3 PM

at the FIELD MUSEUM, main floor.

Drop by as I demonstrate the classical hammer and hardie cutting technique and work on a reproduction from the LOD. Display will include examples of various methods and materials highlighting the ancient roots or “grammar” of mosaic making. Finished artworks, works in progress, tools, books and a resource hand-out will be featured.

READ MORE LOD ARTICLES HERE

 Hmmm…is it Really a Whale?   SOMETHING’S FISHY: MAN EATING GROUPER? 

Patterns of the universe, reflected in the pavement’s geometry THE LOD MOSAIC: UNIVERSE IN A FLOOR

 Ditka does some serious mosaic excavation LIONS AND TIGERS AND DA BEARS

MOSAIC DEMONSTRATIONS at the Legion of Honor, working with the Lod.

Mosaic Cultural Heritage, To Lift or not to Lift:  ROMAN MOSAIC: SHOULD IT STAY OR SHOULD IT GO?

LINKED RESOURCES

Natural Wonders: A Roman Mosaic from Lod Israel

DEC. 9, 2011 – APRIL 22, 2012 AT FIELD MUSEUM CHICAGO

Time Out Chicago review of Whales: Giants of the Deep

Whales: Giants of the Deep, Field Museum

THROUGH JANUARY 16, 2012.

“Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.”

~Native American pronoiac prayer

And while we’re on the topic of Muses…take a moment to ponder this image from Alex Grey’s recent newsletter, ‘Kiss of the Muse’.  

Alex Grey’s work opens the eye to possibility. To see beyond the surface. He illuminates the art path through his work and practice, giving form to the etheric process of creativity. His “Mission of Art” book, has been an inspiration to me for many years. He and his wife Allyson are visionaries in the truest sense of the word, and have dedicated their lives to building spirit and community.

They are my teachers. Spending a week in the Visionary Art workshop with them a few summers ago was a transformative bridge in my own path as an artist.

Pray inspiration, come, you are dedicated to your work.

You have something Great to Give.

Suddenly the idea~ the lightbulb flashes, and the muse arrives

Deliver this Kiss,

Breath of inspiration

now Crowning…

Off you go. 

May your work flow freely today

Toyoharu Kii, "Short Stories" Bibliomosaico exhibition, Ravenna Mosaico, 2011

In mosaic circles, we speak about a mosaic ‘grammar’ or the language of mosaic. We’re usually referring to the various ancient setting patterns used to express a mood within the matrix of a mosaic. This rhythmic pattern, known as OPUS in Latin, or work, is traditionally expressed using cut stone and glass. In plural, these would be ‘OPERA’. (Well, not like Pavarotti singing ‘La Traviata’, but almost).  Some common forms include Opus Regulatum, a grid-like setting pattern, or Opus Vermiculatum, which comes from the Latin term for “worm” and refers to a wavy, winding setting pattern. There are many more. We mosaicists like to talk a lot about how a mosaic surface is worked!

Recently, I’ve noticed there’s a contemporary art trend of using words or letters— language— as the mosaic itself.  A ‘double entendre’ if you will.  Entendre is French for “to hear”,  So double entendre means a phrase that can be taken in more than one way… And there you have the irony of meaning. Do we hear or see mosaics?

Music, Muse, Mosaic, Museum…all derive from the same Greek root word, μουσική  for music, a divine order…and mosaics are called l’arte musivum, the Art of the Muses.

Class dismissed. But not before you have look at these:

Georgiadi Thessalonikeos Despina, "e-book", 2011 at the Old Franciscan Cloisters, Ravenna Mosaico exhibition "Mosaic Installations"

QWERTY 5, an installation by Sarah Frost, at New York's James Hotel, 2010

Detail of QWERTY 5, by Sarah Frost, 2010

Frost’s pieces, made entirely out of cast-off keyboard keys, discarded by an array of users from individuals and small businesses to financial institutions, government offices and Fortune 500 companies, can cover whole rooms. Each key has a unique history and bears the imprint of the thousands of taps by countless users.

See more of Sarah Frost’s work here.

Samantha Holmes, "Unspoken, 10.22.10 - 07.07.11" - detail

Above, Samantha Holmes recently won a 2000 Euro prize for this piece for the Use of Unconventional Technique and Materials. Seen at the GAEM exhibition at Ravenna Mosaico 2011, this old wooden sample board normally used for mosaic samples of colored glass instead contains folded and bound papers bearing her private thoughts. Read an excellent recount of this work and the backstory from the artist on MosaicArt Now.

In the video below, Raniero Bittante’s multi-media mosaic-riff seen at the BIBLIOMOSAICO exhibition in Ravenna. The exhibition, conceived by Rosetta Berardi invited many mosaic artists to create mosaic ‘books’. Using three copies of the Repubblica Italiana, Italy’s constitution, each book is embellished with red, white and green smalti (colors of the Italian flag) and representing the fragmentation of unity – the wads of chewed bubble gum, the cohesion. The “mosaic work” was enhanced by a tiny video screening of citizens blowing bubbles – then the gum was used to stick the pieces (tesserae, in Italian) to the book. A tribute and reflection on Italy’s 150th year.

“It’s an experimental blending of contemporary mosaic and the hand-written essay of the tedious variety that school children dread.”

Jo Braun, "Three Page Essay", 2011 "Works of the World" exhibit Ravenna Mosaico

I saw this at KokoMosaico studio in Ravenna: a book filled with peering mosaic eyes. By Filippo Bandini for Bibliomosaico 2009 edition

Could this be any more adorable?

Muse at the Museum

Looking at the Lod Mosaic, on view at Chicago’s Field Museum from December 9, 2011 until April 2012, brings to mind the question:

Why such an elaborate, lively design for a floor?

San Francisco-based mosaic artist and scholar Lillian Sizemore has some provocative and stimulating answers.

Sizemore is demonstrating mosaic techniques on Saturday, December 10 at the Field Museum, and lecturing on the Lod Mosaic at the Chicago Mosaic School on Monday, December 12.

The Lod Mosaic is a pavement dating from 275-300 AD that was discovered in Lod, Israel, in 1996. “It shows how the Romans were assimilating Greek philosophy as they conquered the Mediterranean world,” says Sizemore, who has lectured extensively on Roman mosaics.

Nationally touring Lod Mosaic moves to Field Museum in Chicago Dec. 9th - the Roman pavement has toured from the Metropolitan Museum, NYC, and Legion of Honor, San Francisco

Sizemore explains that ancient Greeks and Romans used the geometric shapes they saw in nature as a foundation for learning. “By harnessing natural shapes and combining them with images of animals, the creators of the Lod Mosaic made their pavement both decorative and perhaps, philosophical,” says Sizemore. To the initiated, these patterns provided access to the highest levels of thinking and contemplation. As with the patterned mosaic floors in cathedrals, mosques, and temples around the world, one can stand on this pavement and experience the infinite. “The wealthy merchant who commissioned this floor made quite a statement when he placed this contemplative instrument in his reception hall,” says Sizemore.

In her lectures and demonstrations, Sizemore uses animated illustrations and folded models of the floor to reveal how the geometry and imagery work together. “I recognized the geometry, but it was only when I imagined the floor three-dimensionally that the mosaic took on a whole new meaning,” says Sizemore. On the pavement, birds, fish and animals strut and swim in geometrical frames of elaborate and detailed interlocking guilloche borders. When Sizemore folds her model of the floor to create a globe, the birds and fish appear in three-dimensional shapes pointing up to the sky and down to the waters; the mammals hunt in squared frames, grounding the design in an earthly network. Says Sizemore, “Standing on the floor puts you literally in the center of the universe.“

Sizemore points out that the contemplation and manipulation of geometry remains at the foundation of science and technology. In 2010, two scientists won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their creation of graphene, a material just one atom thick that is composed of a lattice of hexagonal honeycomb-shaped molecules. “Hexagons are inherently efficient,” says Sizemore. “It’s the underlying geometry that gives graphene extraordinary properties that may revolutionize electronic circuits, sensors, and solar cells.”

Lod's upper panel of animal-filled hexagons mimics the bee's interlocking comb

Sacred Geometry meets Nanotech: Hexagonal Graphene, only one atom thick

Hearing Sizemore’s lecture on the geometry of the Lod Mosaic gave many listeners an “aha” moment of their own.

M. Bottaro commented:

“Thank you for your thoughts about sacred geometry and how it appears in the Lod Mosaic. I might have simply assumed “Noah’s Ark” before hearing your lecture, and would have satisfied myself by enjoying the lovely patterns.”

Liz Williams wrote:

“Now I understand more why I had so much trouble walking away from that mosaic. I felt lonely when I got too far from it, and happy and full when I was looking at it.”

CALENDAR of EVENTS

Live Mosaic Demonstrations

Saturday, December 10

at THE FIELD MUSEUM

11 AM to 3 PM in the Marae Gallery, 2^nd floor

Professionally trained artist, Lillian Sizemore, demonstrates her mosaic methods, using the classical hammer and hardie cutting technique. Display includes examples of various methods and materials highlighting the ancient roots or “grammar” of mosaic making. Finished artworks, work in progress, tools, books and a resource hand-out are featured.

Lecture: “Lod 2.0: Above and Below”

Monday, December 12

7 PM to 8:30 PM

AT the CHICAGO MOSAIC SCHOOL

1800 W Cuyler, Chicago, IL 60613

773.975.8966

info@chicagomosaicschool.com

www.chicagomosaicschool.com

Lillian’s presentation takes the audience on a fascinating journey, explaining the mosaic’s symbolism and construction and introducing the revolutionary idea that the flat pavement was meant to be imagined as a three-dimensional sphere or globe. 

Lod Mosaic at the Field Museum, on view from Dec. 9, 2011, to April 2012.

The Lod Mosaic then travels to Columbus, Ohio; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Where: The Field Museum 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL 60605

Hours: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Last admission at 4 p.m.  Open every day except Christmas

Museum Admission Tickets: $10- $15

Contact: www.fieldmuseum.org

General Info: (312) 922-9410

 For more on the Lod Mosaic: http://www.lodmosaic.org 

Upper Panel of LOD MOSAIC