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!

Non-artistic post

Completely off the wall subject, but am I the only one that sees that Sarah Alexander (Coupling, etc.) has an uncomfortable resemblance to Hugo Weaving (Elrond in LOTR, Agent Smith in Matrix)? I can't watch any of those movies without hearing Jack Davenport going 'Oh, but Elrond...' I would advise against them ever dating just to be safe.

As a nod to what the blog is about, here are some pretty marbles from antiquity (not mine).

Niche Market? (questione di nicchia per l'arte)

I need some aesthetic opinions from the artful or at least the opinionated about my art niche. A while back I carved out a typical ovolo molding from a piece of marble to fit over the bare sheetrock that was the base of my art niche.

Here it was in process... I'd recommend using a zinc cutout of the profile taped on if you try this at home.

And, here is how it looks at the moment (with tiles stacked precariously).

I can't decide if I want to

1) put matching tile marbles cut in hundreds of rectangles with carved stone on the front edges, giving it a solid stone appearance OR

2) put carved stone on the front edges all the way around the perimiter and just plaster the back with a fresco (no designs, just antiquated color).

Does the marble tile approach remind of a WC?

I also was thinking of incorporating some gold Orsoni tile, but I'm not sure of how to make that look good unless the entire thing was mosaic...

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Non riesco a decidere se voglio

1) mettere tegola marmi tagliati corrispondenti in rettangoli con pietra intagliata sul fronte bordi, dandogli l'aspetto di una solida pietra ...

2) mettere in pietra scolpita sul fronte tutti i bordi modo per aggirare il perimiter e solo la parte posteriore con un affresco (non i disegni, antiquato colore solamente).

Roman Stones (pietre di Roma)?

So last fall I was swimming just off the shore of a small town in the Var (France in case anyone's not up on Jeopardy world geography category). My foot bumped up against a strangely shaped stone so I dove down to pick it up. It looks kind of like a thumb or big toe from a statue(no jokes here please), but I'm not sure enough to have the museum do a TL or something to see if it's authentic. It seems to be a worked piece of stone because of the straight angle underneath that it is cut at (not visible in the photo). If it is from a statue, it would have had to been huge.

What do any readers think? 1) Artifact or 2) What, it's a rock you goof...

Recently, I've read 'Understanding Roman Inscriptions' by Lawrence Keppie which is a comprehensive survey into reading all those wordy pats on the back that the Romans were so fond of. Hopefully, I can apply some of this in abbreviating carvings for the pool area in a realistic way. I was thinking of using the unpolished side of the slab here (cut to golden rectangle on the right side) and typical name dedication in small letters, but large letters for the Latin phrase for 'Relax and Play', which will involve carving a 'u' as a 'v' which is almost as cool as carving one of those combination 'ae' letters. I'm thinking gilding on the inside of these letters, but maybe bronze cast after taking a mold.

Speaking of bronze, I wish the foundry I emailed would get back with me about the cost of casting lectus couch legs given the plaster models... Maybe they are waiting for copper prices to go back up?

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Nell'autunno scorso mi è stato nuoto vicino alla Var (Francia). Mio piede urtato contro una strana tipo di pietra, così ho colomba a venire a ritirarlo.Sembra come una sorta di grande dito per una statua?

Che cosa qualsiasi lettori pensano? 1) Artefatto o 2) è una roccia, che l'uomo è un pazzo! ...

Resin cast complete (Medusa resina è finito)

Finally, after reading Louis Slobodkin's nice book on sculpture with all the handy tips about plaster casting, I have a resin and marble dust copy. This is still not the end product, but will be used to get reference points for drilling into real stone. One cool tip picked up from that book is when you are making the plaster mold over a clay original, pick an odd color like blue pigment powder mixed in with the first thin layer of plaster. Then proceed with white for the rest of it. So, when you are chipping off the mold from your casting, you see the blue when you get close to the cast part. Otherwise, this face might be missing a nose or something... Maybe that would have made it more real looking (ancient)?

Bar Like a Temple Floor (Tempio Piano Birra)

My Medusa mold is done and I have the positive in resin and marble dust finally. But, it is not photoworthy yet, so here is a project from last year. I was impressed very thoroughly with the interesting stonework in ancient Pompeii and wanted something other than plywood for the top of the bar. So, I settled on a marble square in square pattern with a raised lip around the sink. I still need to do a relief and mosaic combo in the background, but it's like a blank page and I have writers' block.

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Qui ho fatto la quadrata in quadrata di marma per il bar... è ispirato da Pompei. Mmmm, birra :)

Everyone Just Back Away from the Window (Si prega di ritornare fuori dalla finestra)

Sorry for the off topic (non-neoclassical or artistically related) post. Things are not as bad as they seem, so hopefully the folks outside the G20 meeting can just settle down a bit and stop the ridiculous rioting. I'm at the window, but I'm not jumping.


This from an employee of Lehman during the collapse... I'm proud that the company didn't get bailout money from the US. Life in a free market goes on... But, not if the government takes over everything and spends us to oblivion. I sincerely hope the EU won't cave to the pressure from our goofy administration. And getting rid of 'mark-to-market'? Right, if we ignore the trouble it goes away? That really is some Hope(tm).


Update... they didn't cave to the excessive spending (except the IMF increases).

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Mi auguro che la E.U. non ascoltare Obama's motivi a spendere di più. Grandi problemi che succede se (Per Lehman, ho lavorato in private equity, non fare problemi come in NY, ahaha).