amor fati

According to Wikipedia, amor fati is a Latin phrase that means "love of fate." It is used to describe an attitude in which one sees everything that happens in one's life, including suffering and loss, as good or, at the very least, necessary.  "amor fati," my latest mosaic, is about four feet tall and three feet wide.

Yeah, I always say the same thing... "I wish you could see this in person." Right?  Photos of my mosaics makes them look flat.  The black number matrix tiles are inlaid over half an inch deep; the beetle body and the eye of Horus protrude about the same. So I have this done now, and I can't even show the rest of my family under the current quarantine circumstances because we're following recommended precautions.  The only two people that have seen this are the two pictured in the mosaic, Rob and myself.  The mosaic is about a woman that loves to make art.  If you see things in this that make you think the mosaic might be deeply personal, you are correct.  

I started this back in the summer, and was hoping to be done by Thanksgiving, ha!  I took photos and clips throughout the process and will start on a video tomorrow.  Can't wait! I always figure that people may be mildly curious about the process, but not enough to hear all the boring details so I will try my best to squeeze months of work into 4 minutes. 

The brown/gold/blue band across has my handmade glass; bubbles, polka dots, stripes and the usual stuff that makes me so happy.  The features in this had me cracking up the entire time I was working on it.  My dog is a shih tzu so the rendering of him in this mosaic is hilarious.  Yes, this is basically what Rob wears when he cooks.  Notice his sword to fend off attacking enemies. 

I thought long and hard about the art that the woman would be painting in the mosaic.  I knew I wanted blue on her brush and was initially thinking the wave or the astronaut.  Having her paint the beetle... I mean, the actual mosaic that she is in... was kind of an after-thought but it works for me.

The art that she has created is actually referencing my work.  I couldn't fit everything and a lot of my favorites were omitted just because I felt they would be hard to render in this size. 

For me, signature tiles are serious stuff.  Often, they are thought out long before the mosaic is started.  The signature tile for this mosaic was going to be another numbers matrix tile but towards the end of completion, I decided on a cartouche.  I know it is way off of what a real cartouche looks like but I am thrilled with how it turned out.  The "crumbling" walls that reveal the numbers are something that I have never done before.  They are a layer below the surface of the rest of the mosaic.  Maybe the best part is the dimension that you can see when you move from side to side looking at those columns of numbers.  I have a video of them on Instagram if you're interested.  OK!  I'm pretty sure the next mosaic is a beta fish.  I have a cute commission first so we'll see.  I have a while to change my mind.