MosaicBlues: March 2016 .entry-content { font-size:25px !important; }

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

No Bad Practice.


You often hear the formula: "Practice makes Perfect."

Often after that, some smart self appointed expert pompously adds : "Perfect Practice makes perfect".

Now I would like  to bring up the following story, taken from a book Art and Fear, by David Bayles and Ted Orland

'The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the "quantity" group: fifty pound of pots rated an "A", forty pounds a "B", and so on. Those being graded on "quality", however, needed to produce only one pot -- albeit a perfect one -- to get an "A". 

Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work - and learning from their mistakes -- the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.'


Although clearly poor practice cannot make things perfect, if you wait to be able to practice perfectly to get started you won't achieve anything. 

When they were kids, Michelangelo and Vermeer certainly did ugly drawings... But they did not quit ! And they did not wait to paint perfectly to get started. 

"C'est en forgeant qu'on devient forgeron." *

I'd much rather teach goofy students who keep trying hard with a big heart than smart ones who do not dare to try anything by fear of not doing it right...

This is true of every activity involving training and practice Zen, Budo, Mosaics, Cooking, etc...




 





















Poor practice is better than no practice. 


Takeyuki Miura Hanshi




















Think about it,
Stand up and go Home to your Studio or Dojo.  
Practice your Art !


* One becomes a Smith by forging.


I am a modern mosaic artist with a deep admiration for ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine Arts. You can see some of my own mosaics on my site mosaicblues.

 






If you are interested by my work in general  or if you would simply like to drop me a line, please 
contact me by email at frederic.lecut@gmail.com   
or by phone at (334) 798 1639. 
You can also

Monday, March 21, 2016

Yezidi Mosaics update, March 17, 2016


My collection of 7 portraits of eyes of Yezidi children has  well progressed since our last update on February 2nd. At this time, Yezidi 20 still needed to be flipped, Yezidi 13 was 15 % complete, and Yezidi 36 existed only as a project.


I have now flipped 6 out of the 7 mosaics. Four of them are framed and ready to be displayed. Two of them (Yezidi 20 and 13) still need some cleaning to eliminate the glue.



Yezidi 20

I flipped Yezidi 13 on March 15, and taped the operation. Here is the video of this operation, this is the moment when one sees the actual mosaic for the first time... A very moving one !





At this time, I have laid 10 % of Yezidi 36



Yezidi 36 - Work in Progress



The 7 mosaics should be ready by mid April. I would like to sell them to raise funds to help the Free Yezidi Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping the Yezidi people from Iraq and Syria. We have started thinking about the way we could organize a sale / auction. We have little experience on this matter, and all help or suggestion is welcome.

If you have some experience in organizing this kind of charity / fund raising event, please contact me at frederic.lecut @gmail.com or by phone at (334) 798 1639.



 

I am a modern mosaic artist with a deep admiration for ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine Arts. You can see some of my own mosaics on my site mosaicblues.

 






If you are interested by this project or by my work in general 
or if you would simply like to drop me a line, please 
contact me by email at frederic.lecut@gmail.com   
or by phone at (334) 798 1639. 

You can also

to receive regular updates on this
Yezidi Eyes Mosaic Project, 
and my other projects.