My mosaic art reflects my longstanding interest in relief art and its close relative, mosaic, especially Hindu, Assyrian, Greek, and Mayan relief sculpture and Islamic mosaics.  For years I have created "paper mosaic" collages and worked with reflective media that change with the light, as well as with colorful, ornate wall reliefs. But recently I transitioned into true mosaics, having obtained more studio and storage space, as well as a stockpile of mosaic materials, which is necessary for this medium.

In my mosaics I focus on creating abstract or non-objective designs made from broken china and other re-used objects. I choose to avoid representational mosaics because I do not want to start with a "picture" of reality and then try to "execute" it in mosaic. Though a mosaic might be more luscious and tactile than most other media, replicating reality would be tedious, time-consuming, expensive, and no different in concept from creating representational art in any other medium. Instead, I prefer to let the medium dictate the form, and to use broken china and other found objects rather than tessarae, tiles, or glass specifically made for rendering mosaic. The transformation of an object created for one purpose into part of another object adds interest, surprise, and sometimes humor to the final art work. There is a huge investment of time in mosaic work, so simply replicating what can be done in other, more flexible, media seems silly.

Creating mosaics from broken china is much more time-consuming and difficult that creating a mosaic from materials especially created for mosaic or tile work. This is because the pieces are irregular, different thicknesses, and not flat on the back, which makes fastening them to the substrate and dealing with the transitions/joints especially troublesome. However, I believe that the added visual and mental intrigue is worth it, and that the irregularity adds to the unpredictability and life to the final product. And with abstract designs, the idiosyncratic materials are better able to dictate the direction of the mosaic.

In addition to mosaics, my online  contemporary visual art gallery  includes bold, sensual, intriguing fine art in painting, drawing, pastel, collage, and mixed media.  See  realistic and expressive figure drawings,  abstract and decorative figure paintings,  playful figures,  portraits of men,  portraits of women,  still lifes,  abstract art,  decorative non-objective art,  reliefs and sculpture, and other  sensual contemporary art.