Mosaic Monday / UFO 's

At our last mosaic ATC card swap in May I was asking one of the artists what she was working on and she replied that she has a few Mosaic UfO's sitting around. I was very intrigued and immediately thought of the work of Eve Lynch.  When I pressed her for more details she informed me that UFO's are Un-Finished Objects.  I laughed out loud and was happy to discover this important new mosaic term ( thanks Theresa).

Above is a shot of a few of my current " UFO's". When I first started mosaics in 2007 I started on a really large crow mosaic, got half way through it  and then left it alone for over a year. I have since finished that project and now I have a few other unfinished works that are tugging at me. When I was new to mosaics I felt terrible when I would abandon one project to start another. As I have met more mosaic artists and seen how they work I have learned that this is a common pattern and not a character flaw. It has something to do with the time intensive nature of the medium.  Sometimes you get stuck and do not know what direction to go with a project and other times you just get bored and need to start on something new. At any rate I no longer beat myself up about unfinished objects.

Focus on what you "are" doing, not what is undone:
My goal for the year is to finish 14 new mosaics for an upcoming art show in September, take a mosaic class in Italy in the fall and then after a crazy busy holiday season here at Art Paw creating pet portraits I will tackle all of my unfinished fine art mosaic projects next January.


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Mosaics Around the Web.....

Check out Katrina Doran's blog on the 2nd Tuesday of each month for a step by step tutorial on creating large flower sculptures: http://katrinadoran.wordpress.com

Christine Brallier shares a post on making progress on her book! Follow along at : http://cbmosaics.blogspot.com
Keep up the good work Christine and hang in there! It is going to be great.

Eve Lynch has a call to artists for anyone wanting to donate a butterfly mosaic to a community project she is organizing.

Kim Grant's Blog: Kim did a recent post about Howard Grange.  I love Kim's blog because she writes from the heart and will even go off on an occasional rant. She very much has a journal style approach in her blogging.

Margo Antone has a blog where she posts tiny mosaics she creates in a Mosaic-a-day approach, much like the popular painting a day blogs.

Tate & Bijou

"Tate" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

"Bijou" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

This week I proofed Bijou & Tate. The summer heat is starting to zap my energy just a bit. Being inside working on pet portraits is about all that I want to do and yet I am also getting cabin fever. This weekend I am going to work on my mosaics and that should energize me.

What are you guys doing to beat the summer heat? I have a great video I will post soon of our dog Whitman playing in the water. He loves the water hose. When he was just a puppy I allowed him to get in the shower with me once and since then he has been totally fascinated with water. I like having a water dog. Big Tommy loved the water too.

Mosaic Monday / Scale baby Scale

Scale is such an impressive thing in art. This weekend we organized and cleaned out the garage. Dan spent a good amount of time un-stretching and rolling up some really huge paintings he did in college. I fell in love with several of them and wanted to hang a few however most are just way too large for any wall in our little bungalow. Yea, I am married to a tall painter that likes to paint really big.  I am drawn to larger works but have not had the courage to really tackle a huge mosaic yet.   

When I see large scale mosaics I am just blown away.

I have been meaning to share a cool site with you and a post I saw today fits right in with the subject of scale.  Check out Midcentura.com.  The mosaic below is by Spanish artist Josep Renau and it is made up of square tiles. I am usually not a fan of mosaics with perfectly shaped tiles all in the same size, but this work is just amazing.

If that piece does not impress maybe you will like the image below of a 10 story tall mosaic.

Read more at Midcentura.com

Ok so if you are a mosaic artist viewing this and thinking like I am well, "yea scale is cool but this is way out of my world of possibility" then please check out the work below by Barbara Keith. It is also very much out of my league but at 5 feet by 13 feet it is the sort of large scale mosaic that I can almost get my tiny brain around. She worked it in panels and that makes a lot of sense to me.

©2011  Barbara Benson Keith

You can read more, see wips and close ups of this outstanding large scale mosaic mural on Barbara's blog.  Way to go Barb! This piece is a real masterpiece and a work that will raise the bar for all mosaic artists.  I really love the way the panels vary in size, the subtle colors, the great use of contrast ... I just love everything about this work.

New Chihuahua Art And New Doxies

"Pixie" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

 

"Snoopy & Charlie" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Boy this week is winding down so fast. These are a couple of recent projects proofed this last week. The Chihuahua needs some minor tweaking and the Doxies will get printed up tomorrow.

Bride and Groom Robots

Bride and Groom Robots, a photo by artpaw [rebecca collins] on Flickr.

A Mosaic gift for pals that married this last weekend.

Many New Pet Portrait Projects

Wow, seven days into June and I have not updated the blog yet. I have been away from the blog this past week because I have been very focused on many many pet portraits. I will post the past week here. I had a blast working on all of these.

"Dresden" ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Aspen ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

 Vito & Vienna ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Max ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

June Bug ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Rocky ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

Sophie ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

 

Daisy ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

 

Ginger & Payton ( see all proofs)
© rebecca collins / artpaw.com

I still have a few project updates on the board and 4 new commissions including a cool cat I am working on for a classmate. Thanks to everyone for your patience. I try to provide proofs at least 3 days out of the week. We print and ship approved projects out every Tuesday and Thursday. Below is a shot of Lola from last week. I am very lucky to have help with stretching & shipping.