Monday, April 13, 2009

Mosaic Portrait of Shelly (ritratto a mosaico di conchiglie)



This weekend, I started a new ambitious project based on a personification of 'Spring' in El Djem (Tunisia, second century Roman portraiture), but pictures aren't ready to go walking just yet. So instead, here is a boring sea shell work in marbles I did for my bath area about a year and a half ago.




It's weird to wonder whether most sea shells looked exactly the same 2000 years ago. Maybe they seemed larger because people were proportionately smaller? Jack Handey also mentions that probably the earliest flyswatters were nothing more than a striking surface attached to some sort of stick, but I digress.



Here is the same mosaic In-Situ (academic-sounding fancy-talk for 'installed').


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versione italiana...



Di cui sopra sono i miei mosaici conchiglie per la zona bagno. Ho iniziato un nuovo mosaico di questo fine settimana, il soggetto è Girl Interrupted belissima come 'Primavera' di El Djem (Tunisia, Sec. II). Un giorno senza amore è proprio una perdita di tempo.


Ciao a tutti!

11 comments:

  1. I've always believed that sea creatures were larger in the past, and are getting smaller and smaller in a freak evolutionary phenomenon, possibly because they're afraid of flies.

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  2. Wow, you did that? It is beautiful, I love it! I want to be all artsy and creative!!!

    When I was reading the text, I could see your shell mosaic out of the corner of my eye...and it was like an optical illusion--as if it were moving...!

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  3. Nidal, thanks I love the idea that artwork made in stone can last for thousands of years.

    LOL, as usual Mo, you bring a unique perspective to the equation. I'm not sure, but I also might subscribe to the Scott Adams (Dilbert) law of gravity. He proposes that since everything in the universe is expanding, it keeps our feet on the ground.

    Lopez, thanks! Unless I mention otherwise (like on the Sarah Alexander post), all displayed artwork is mine. You should try it, at least get hold of some mosaic glass or stone, way fun! Cool you noticed that, if you run 'andamento' outline around the outside of the object, it does have a freaky movement effect. That's how the Romans did it and that's how I roll. Wait, at least about the art stuff, not all the gladatorial combat, crucifixions and stuff.

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  4. The shell piece is lovely! Nice work Eric.

    I'm starting to imagine you living in a grand Roman villa that Caesar himself would be green with envy over.

    Ps: It has long been my opinion that Jack Handey is one of the greatest minds of our time.

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  5. Thanks Girl Interrupted! I wanted to go a bit subtle, no f'ing brightly colored roosters or whatever it was that Mo calls them.

    Yes, it will be kind of a villa soon, but I need more marble columns I think.

    I'm glad you appreciate the Mr. Handey. As he would say 'The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face.' :)

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  6. lol my fave is:

    Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that, I'll be over here, looking through your stuff

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  7. :) I think we blog representatives from all English speaking countries should do a collective Jack Handey appreciation day.

    ps - hope you don't mind me linking your site above for any Italian readers that stumble in.

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  8. Ooh! No! Link away! :P

    *waves at Eric's Italian fans*

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  9. Wow, your mosiac work is beautiful, Eric. We tend to scoff at the beliefs of the ancients. But we can't scoff at them personally, to their faces, and this is what annoys me.

    Thanks for dropping by and commenting!

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  10. Katrocket, thanks.
    And thanks for the perfectly applicable Handey reference ;)
    These are ok, but the new project will hopefully eclipse the other ones in beauty.
    :)

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