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This past weekend I spoke with a family friend who told me, you can either choose AI and survive, or reject AI and die, or something along those lines. There are limitations of doing things by hand, using a window as a light box, using a scale ruler instead of CAD, spending an inordinate amount of time putting something together only to see it in the space and redesign it again completely. Still, I feel that hindrances are beneficial to the creative process, and at the moment I can’t envision my process any other way.

This fireplace hearth was commissioned by my friend Jean, and completed in November, 2022. She initially wanted to incorporate design elements from Roman mosaics, since Jean spent a lot of time teaching in Italy. Flowers from her grandmother's antique Chinese rug were also woven into the hearth, pictured above in inspiration, in-progress design, and completed phases. Drafting, sketching, watercoloring, meeting with Jean and then adjusting and re-adjusting the design, and then going into production mode, took about a year.

Dreams-turned-ideas-manifested in reality, crafted by human hands and human-operated tools take time, desire, and drive. Digitized, automated advances being made for those with visual and other disabilities are real, and I know I am lucky to be able to choose to work at a slower pace. Making something piece by piece is worth every moment of my time.

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This is what I want to build! Please hire me to construct your next playground project.

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So proud of my friend Amanda for making this killer website and hosting the upcoming Stone and Olive drawing workshop! Beauty begets beauties.

http://www.archistrati.com/drawing-retreats/pietreeolivi

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One of the parents of my Youth Wheel-throwing students offered to come in and photograph class last term, and these are the lovely results. So glad to see what things look like from another's perspective.

Thank you, Heidi, and please come back anytime!

More of her work can be seen here: https://www.cecilygeorge.com/

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Earlier this week I went to Louisville to visit my friend Amy King, of King Art Collective, and brought along Athene for the journey. Amy has a knack for finding special places and infusing them with special objects, energy, and meaning. I am so grateful for her help in brainstorming places the owl might inhabit for the shorter-term, and from there, where she will spend the remainder of her long life!

What fun it was to spend Tuesday morning photographing the owl on her family’s farm- in glorious 70° sunshine. We had G's help in hanging the owl along a winding creek and then from a window in a barnway. Quite thrilled with the results!

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Test flight today! Though it was slippery, we managed to hoist this hunter about five feet off the ground and hovered beneath it for a couple photos.

Due to the way the hooks were welded into the frame and the way I strung up the fishing line, the owl was hung face down, so all the mirror could reflect was dark brown sludge and decomposing leaves. Judy had the brilliant idea to put something brighter on the ground so light would reflect up, and found a light blue sheet in my car that did the trick-- except for when it didn't, as you can see on the left side. Despite my mediocre photo, I am still so happy this lady got to get outside! And will try again under different weather conditions at some point in the future.

Thank you so much, Judy, and your incredible incisors! Next time I will not forget the scissors.

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In spare moments between commissions and travels these past few months, I lowered owl prototype #2 down from where it had been hanging from ceiling-hooks and added its tail. With my newly invented specialized fibrous cement I covered the insulation foam, which allows for the reinforcement and flexibility of papier mache with the strength of my preferred polymer-modified thin-set mortar.

I started cutting some broken glass I'd saved from an alley. I'd initially almost not picked this particular glass up because of its especially thin width- but this is what ended up being the very best option for the very smooth mosaic surface I wanted to obtain. After a difficult search, I finally located a source for more of this very thin glass (2mm) so that was exciting, and supposedly lightens up what would have been an even heavier Little Owl (Athene noctua).

This coming Monday, my friend Judy offered to help hoist this lady up in a tree somewhere so I can take a photo of the hundreds of fragmented tree branches and sky shimmering back from these reflective tesserae. And beyond that, the future is unknown.

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Last week my mother and I arranged to be in Naples for one full day, as we had travel arrangements coming and going on either side. I voted that we spend our time scouring the Archaeological Museum, as both of us had been to Pompeii on prior trips, and was lucky that mom agreed.

Here are pictures from my 2014 visit to Pompeii and the mosaics from the MANN photographed last week. Though I have since rearranged the rhythm of the random upload order, I enjoy seeing these photographs mixed up. The deserted ruins are so empty and drab, and of course the mosaics are not where they were originally intended to be. In looking at them quickly in repetition, is it kind of like a flip book, where images meld, frescoes brighten, and mosaics re-adhere themselves to walls?

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Yesterday we went to the seaside just east of Ostuni, and on the way back we stopped at a grove of very old olive trees. Amanda had sketched them along her pilgrimage walk along the Vie Francigene during olive harvest last year. The signs of the blight are evident- the bacteria xylella fastidiosa that blocks sap from reaching the leaves of entire branches can be seen on nearly every tree. Some of the trees are massive skeletons of bark growth, sprouting just a branch of leaves; some contain portals or secret doors to hidden dimensions; all are age-old marvels and mysteries. I wish I’d finished my drawing in time to post it alongside my chosen tree, but I will have to finish it on the train tomorrow, and next time, sit with these beauties a little longer.

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Ten years ago, I was very lucky to be able to spend some slow time in Italy. In each temporary dwelling, there was space to set out pencils and erasers, brushes, paints and paper. I didn't have an agenda, assignment, or deadline. Daytime walks influenced nighttime work.

I really love looking back at these paintings, despite the embedded emotions regarding my lack of internal creative direction mired in existential ineptitude. Just after this trip, I found myself becoming acquainted with clay and mosaic, and I am grateful that over the following ten years, these pursuits have in turn given my universe structure and meaning.

Next week I will return to Italy, this time with my mother! We will see my good friend, Amanda, and hopefully we can all find many playful, quiet, reflective moments to see and sketch, and perhaps add dabs of watery colors.

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Visiting Fonthill Castle and Moravian Tile Works at the end of July was a curious dream I would opt to wake up inside of every night. I am so lucky to have explored it with dear family- Cousin Amber came from Syracuse, Aunt Rosanne from nearby within Bucks County, and sister Lauren exploring the lands east of where her roots run deep in California. What a strange place to explore, the physical embodiment of the dreams and visions of explorer and anthropologist Henry Mercer Chapman, who built the castle and nearby tile factory after 1908. Both a showplace and a museum, Mercer's collection ranges from preserved cuneiform tablets, Delft and Chinese roof tiles, and also his own take on history, told in various tile and mosaic forms.

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This past June the lil crew of Fosgate Pickleballers and I spent some quality time in the Maxwell Street Community Garden building the form for the bench, pouring it, and tiling it with the flowers, rollerskates, Girl Fridays, paddles and peppers that were made two years prior in our mosaic workshops at Fosco Park. Here are images from the first couple days of working- and me trying to figure out the best method for ease of creation and installation.

Originally in the workshop (two summers ago) I taught two methods, but the first with packing tape was scrapped because the tape did not adhere to the tile, and I opted instead for showing how to tack tile down using silicone adhesive onto mesh. This method turned out to be messy and the creations people made seemed to be better suited to a different method- leading me to spend weeks over the winter resetting these in reverse using a flour-water paste on butcher paper. All well and good until install, during which time I realized this was not a great method, as it took forever to clean- the paper disintegrated and glue was stuck between joints of tile which had to be cleaned out with a razor blade. It was all hilarious and took three times as long. Luckily, we had great weather and had borrowed a big tent- which later blew down and was destroyed in a wind storm- thankfully we got a commercial-grade replacement with weights that will hopefully last through many more outdoor installations.

We didn't have enough pieces to fill the bench so anytime I had helpers, or went home and made some flower tiles at home, I used the original packing tape method, this time with extra sticky tape! So this method will be the one I recommend going forward- simple and easy to install- though with too much adhesive some must be scraped away in order to fill in the crevice with grout. If someone has another method they prefer and would be willing to share I would be grateful.

The plaque has been made and I will install and grout around it next week in advance of the dedication at the Maxwell Street Community Garden Harvest Festival scheduled for the 28th of September.

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Almost as soon as I arrived to set up for class at Stirling Hall this afternoon there was a pervasive smell of smoke. Grounds outside the windows were saturated with the milky mist of prairie bonfire. I walked into it- we assumed someone had called about it- and found a firefighter seeking the root of it. He communicated to another person in a vehicle with flashing lights that he would drive to the other side of it.

I entered the thicket to see three cardinals, a female fluttered to a nearby branch and two bright red males flew past each other repeatedly and without minding me. I went on to find the source of dense smoke just beyond, several jagged lines of flames on the east side of the hiking trail.

I went to share the news and found that the firetruck had just arrived. Wish I could have lingered longer.

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A more extensive portrayal of the journey of Ondine the Barred Owl. What a fun project, though in the end the Torres family decided not to hang it on the wall it was originally designed for, instead opting to have it flying down above the stairwell in the open foyer. So, something else will have to be done for the original spot.

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Over the course of 2023, I built three hanging owls for a commission from some bistro regulars, the Torres family. They wanted it to hang above the sliding door on their enclosed porch, on a narrow and long section of wall. Over the previous year, discussion of mosaic ideas started as a flat landscape and morphed into a suspended owl, as owls were a favorite of grandma Torres.

I started taking welding classes at Chicago Industrial Arts and Design Center, and then worked as an open studio monitor, which was great for consistent weekly access to the weld shop. The first owl was a good size, but angular and a bit aggressive-looking, with its disproportionately large talons and open beak, After filling its frame with bits of insulation foam adhered with liquid nails adhesive and carving a set of fairly chunky wings, I thought maybe I’d try again, and use this attempt instead as the first in a series of mythological women- in this case a harpy. This owl is currently suspended in my walk-in mosaic closet, stripped back down to its cold-rolled steel frame. I think I might instead turn it into a bat.

The second owl, pictured in its bare bones state on the table next to the first, was better in terms of its disposition, but turned out larger than expected. So I began work on a third. Beatrice, as you can see from her expression, was both dismayed and indifferent to the production.

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Throwback to September 2023 when I helped my mom begin a giant mermaid mosaic to be put on the side of her new home in Scotts Valley, and then a couple months back in January of this year when I went back to grout. Mom designed the mermaidenlady (looking much more fierce after being tiled!) and had done all the mosaic work in between with the help of my sister Lauren’s dog Cody. He is going on eighteen years old and is such a good helper! We have yet to hang her up but hopefully this will happen when I’m back home in a couple months.

What a fun project, and a pleasure to work outside in the California sun. Thanks again to Christine for the extra stained glass!