Hiding the Blue - First step on a new path

I started this large piece enthusiastically, way, way back in August 2021, and didn’t finish it until January 29th 2023! That had never happened before, and is shocking to me. However, I got diagnosed with breast cancer in October of 2021, had a double mastectomy at the end of that year, and took some time to recover. Between then and now I made a lot of the small mosaics you see on the Portfolio page, as well as the two panels of the wedding mosaic. By the time all of that was done, I didn’t feel great about going back to it. I was over it, and ready to move on to the next piece, already in my head and waiting to be made. I just didn’t care, and that had never happened before, either. It was the upcoming Expressions West show at Coos Art Museum in Coos Bay that got me moving again, and finally it is done! The picture below is where this mosaic remained for more than a year.

I’m not completely happy with it for a few reasons, I’m not sure the blue works with the green marble and onyx and the purple as a triad of color. It is a psychological piece, expressing my constant effort to go through life without revealing how much sadness I carry. the amethyst, with all its beads and brightness, symbolizes all the sparkle of my personality, which makes a wall between my pain and the world. The green field, with its andamento moving inwards toward the amethyst and blue, representing the pressures—both internal and external—that I feel to keep that constant sadness well hidden. I don’t know if this is at all evident in the piece itself, without the title, but it is a success on that score. I’m just not sure about whether the overall piece works.

Whether it works or not, this piece is the first step on my current path: trying to express interior realities with mosaic art, using symbolism and implication.. The next piece is called “Inconsolable.”

Materials helpful hint: I bought inexpensive, unpolished amethyst for this because I would need so much of it.. You can see how much darker it is in the finished piece, because I used a stone enhancer, which deepened and brightened the amethyst.