“In Dreams Untouchable” mosaic art. tumbled stone, hand cut. 24″ x 30″

“In Dreams Untouchable” Contemporary Mosaic Art

In this mosaic, I was trying to capture the feeling and the story of a recurring dream I have: I am wandering through the night and meet a group of people. I am talking with one of them, and then something happens, and suddenly there is confusion and anger. They become violent and try to catch me and hold me to the ground to beat me, but I can fly over them if I really concentrate. They are always just about to get a hand on me, but I am just able to stay right above their heads. I brush into the tops of trees because I have to keep an eye on the people running after me. The leaves are wet with dew because it is night time.

This is my first mosaic made completely from stone. Up until this mosaic, I had been working primarily in smalti, mostly using the Mexican smalti we sell under the name Byzantine Mosaic Glass, but also making use of ceramic dinnerware, found stones, cut stained glass and other improvised forms of mosaic tile.  The stone here is 3/8″ tumbled stone cubes split as need. I was skeptical about using tumbled cubes before I started, but I quickly saw that the tumbled finish was not an obstacle for getting a natural stone effect. In fact, I think that the tumbled surface may reveal more natural grain and color than cleaving the stone to expose a broken face.