NEWS: Bardo museum in Tunis reopens

The Bardo Museum, famous for being home to some of the world's most spectacular ancient mosaics has officially reopened following renovations. Read more here

Mosaic Lady in Red

via

Wow, this is a spicy one!

I just love how the artist designed part of the shoes and hair of this sexy mosaic lady in red to appear out of the outline.

This would look great in an entrance in a single guy's apartment, don't you think?

Coming soon on Mosaicology

While I am working on other projects, I hate to see Mosaicology neglected. 

To keep the blog going, there will be new posts with less words and more pictures and of course more INSPIRATION.
 
So, stay tuned for posts that will trigger your creativity and spark inspiration.

PS: I may be having a guest blogger soon so that's another good reason to STAY TUNED for some new sparkle and glitter!

How (not) to grow an ancient mosaic in Dallas

What a weird title you may say. Please visit Bored Neoclassical Guy's Blog to read the whole post.  I assure many laughs. Oh, and by the way, the post is also available in Italian. I was only too thrilled to do the translation into Italian for Eric. I usually do not translate into Italian and I hope to have achieved at keeping the sense of humour Eric so successfully conveyed in his original text. That was my main concern.

Here's a quick excerpt:

I had been putting in way too many hours at the office over the past few months. Although it had been very profitable, I couldn't help but think of the work as too much of a tradeoff of my time preventing time for making art, not to mention the lack of sleep driving me to the point of delusion. Surely there are many artists probably going through exactly the same thing.

In questi ultimi mesi ho lavorato parecchio. Nonostante un guadagno significativo, non ho potuto non considerare il lavoro come un trade-off del mio tempo. Questa situazione mi impediva dal creare, per non menzionare la mancanza di sonno fino al punto di delusione. Sicuramente ci sono parecchi artisti che probabilmente stanno affrontando la stessa cosa.

image and text source annoiatoregazzoneoclassico

Wordpress or Blogger

In my quest for a new blog, I am facing the dilemma of whether shifting to Wordpress which obviously is tremendously more professional with lots of functions and possibilities. Not just the plug-ins but also as far as themes are concerned.

I downloaded a theme that truly struck me as the perfect one but then I realised I have to register and go through some other procedures that I cannot get around to knowing what they are until I hit ok and confirm registration. Probably is nothing and I am just tired or afraid of trying out something new that I know it want.

I have however decided on the title of the blog. An all-encompassing title that, miraculously, covers just about everything I am into right now (both for my business and my passions) AND would be able to "follow" me on my blogging journey and ventures.

How am I dealing with my dilemma? Well, to test the new blog and title, I created a new blog on blogger which can be deleted at any time and I will try and get the look right before I decide (or abandon) embarking on a Wordpress experience.

Funny thing is that I have just realised that Blogger does contain some features I had not noticed before so maybe I will stick to this platform eventually. Then, if all goes well and my goals are met, I would start an official site. Right now, there is no point of doing that.

What do you say? New blog, new platform?

The Epitaphios of Great Friday: Mosaic of Flowers for the Grave of Christ and Hymns of Immaculate Beauty

(My thanks to a friend for helping me with this post - I am not good at this)

The Greek Orthodox Church is blessed for its role in preserving traditions and customs of both an internal and external beauty - how can one not be associated with the other; in this post I want to illustrate the custom of decorating Christ's tomb with flowers, a tradition that's considered a "jewel" for Greek Orthodoxy. I am talking about the Epitaph (epi επί + taphos τάφος = over + grave), a mosaic of flowers which often, as in the photo above, becomes an art masterpiece.

The Epitaphios is decorated during the early hours of Holy Friday by groups of women that work painstakingly and tirelessly while staying with Christ after his death and his Passion on the Cross.

The devotees will gather at church in the evening of Holy Friday to venerate, honour and pray at Christ's tomb. They will chant some of the most remarkable and too beautiful to describe hymns of the Greek Byzantine repertoire. Hymns of sorrow but also of great hope and devoutness. Those are still moments of grief but the beauty of the chanting and of the fresh flowers are the epitome of the long wait for the resolution to the Passion. The Epitaphios along with the Engomia (chants) of Holy Friday is an illustration of the life inside the grave. Yes, life inside the Grave. Not death inside the Grave.

The hymn "Life in the Grave" (Η Ζωή εν Τάφω - I Zoi en Tafo) is an example of that transition between life and death, sorrow and joy. Listening to this hymn you cannot differentiate sadness from joy. It has mixed feelings, mixed meanings. It's a mosaic of contents and of worlds.

The BEAUTIFUL and MOVING hymn "LIFE IN THE GRAVE" and THE EPITAPHIOS PROCESSION.

Women decorating the Epitaphios

Mosaic Art as Therapy (Galeria Alegria of New Orleans)

Walking to New Orleans
84''x36''
Made with approximately 75,000 beads

Events and Fun at the Galeria Alegria

These panels were ruined during the Katrina disaster. 
Look at how they have been transformed using bead art!

This mosaic with over 250,000 beads was created to raise funds for the victims of Hurricane Katrina

Stephán Wanger of Galeria Alegria is a remarkable self-taught artist who has constructed his very own artistic language enriched with a mission. He is the man behind some spectacular mosaics made with Mardi Gras beads that serve a purpose. To revive New Orleans after the disaster, bringing back hope, while nurturing creativity, promoting recycling and teaching art to younger generations.

Browsing though his website, some of the images were striking and really reverberated that musicality and rhythm of what we know New Orleans to be. 

What is absolutely worthy of note here is how bead art is so close to mosaic art and how art is always the best therapy to overcome disasters not just on a global level but also on a personal. If a mosaic artwork manages to reach out people and raise money to help those in need after what happened to New Orleans you can imagine how people who need emotional support can find relief when juxtaposing scattered pieces to construct a WHOLE NEW IMAGE. 

Since the therapy of art is in the process, mosaic, due to its painstaking and challenging creative phases, is certainly the par-excellence artistic method to explore your feelings, accept them and MOVE ON by creating something new, focusing on something else that YOU start from scratch. I never believed that problems can be solved if we dwell on them too much and keep on insisting to find the solution while inside the problem.

Mosaic art is beyond any doubt the ART for people who don't mind starting over. It's in fact that tabula rasa factor to begin with that intrigues the artist to get involved with mosaic.

The Fleur de Lis is a symbol of Louisiana

The Brown Pelican is considered to be the State Bird of Louisiana since 1966

Teaching mosaic bead work at an elementary school with the help of Stephán Wanger

Images from Galeria Alegria

Solemnity and beauty in a modern mosaic made with nails

The ancient art of mosaic has gone through great evolution and revolution through the ways that artists have learned to adapt to new socioeconomic and artistic realities and employ new materials.

The new techniques and methods that mosaic artists use today can still manage to capture what mosaic art is about. Not a broken image, not just pieces put together to form an image, not attempts at imitating painting but authentic images that talk and breathe with their vibrant materials (in this case, nails), the interactive dialogue of those materials between them (a dialogue on so many "levels" achieved by different depths and sizes of the mosaic tessera*).

The solemnity suggested by the dynamic and floating texture of the portraits in the second picture created by Andrew Meyers transports us to a very unique roman mosaic portrait masterpiece from Pompeii. Even though these portraits are separated by a little over 2000 years, the artists have been so true to their own technique and created their artwork with such extraordinary craftsmanship that we could almost say that the outcome, is quite similar, at least to my humble view.

"To convey solemnity and beauty in ways that it does perfect justice to the subject and evokes feelings of harmony and inner peace to the audience".

*tessera = The piece of stone, glass, smalti, ceramic or other material with which mosaics are made. The word is Greek and it means 4 (four)
pictures of nail mosaics from http://additionsstyle.blogspot.it
picture of Pompeii mosaic from mosaic art source blog

Flower Festival (Festa dei Fiori) - 1st April 2012, Crevalcore (near Bologna)

Festa dei Fiori 2012 - Flyer

Festa dei Fiori 2012

Domenica 1 aprile a Crevalcore si terrà la ventesima edizione della “Festa dei Fiori”, mostra mercato di fiori, piante, vasi, ceramiche e attrezzature da giardino.
Inizierà alle 9 del mattino e si chiuderà solo al calar del sole, l’edizione 2012 della “Festa dei Fiori”, durante la quale, oltre all’esposizione di piante e oggetti da giardino, saranno presenti la mostra artistica “Parliamo d’arte sotto i portici”, il mercatino degli hobbisti e il gruppo musicale "I Cuntaden (noi, quelli di mezzo...)".
Per l’occasione il centro storico di Crevalcore sarà un tripudio di colori, profumi e sapori in omaggio alla primavera, ma anche quelli della gastronomia tradizionale.
Info: Pro Loco, tel. 051 988458

Documenti allegati:

Manifesto_festa_dei_fiori_2012.pdf (2417 Kb.)


Flower Festival 2012
On Sunday 1st of April in Crevalcore, the 20th edition of "Festa dei Fiori" will take place. The event will host a flea market/exhibition of flowers, plants, pots, ceramics and garden utensils.
The festival starts at 9 am and will end only at sunset, during which, besides the exhibition of plants and objects for the garden, there will be an artistic show called "Let's talk about art under the arcades", a market for hobbyists and a performance by the music group "I Cuntaden" (noi, quelli di mezzo).
For the occasion, the historical town centre of Crevalcore will be a blaze of colours, aromas and flavours paying tribute to not only Spring, but also to the traditional cuisine.Info: Pro Loco, tel. 051 988458

Attached Documents:

Manifesto_festa_dei_fiori_2012.pdf (2417 Kb.)

My translation of the Italian original text taken from: http://www.comune.crevalcore.bo.it

My new guest post on FWD about freelancing and work-life balance

I hope you can check it out HERE