Meet the very talented Robert Lisac, Mosaicist from Slovenia...
I am not sure exactly when I first met you Robert Lisac. I remember seeing one of your mosaics on Pinterest. A portrait of King George, the older Australian Aborigene depicted in the movie Australia, also featuring Nicole Kidman.
I found this portrait very powerful, and felt compelled to contact you. We started to exchange through emails and instant messages, and realized we had things in common beside mosaics, Martial Arts, and the practice of several languages being some of them. Today, I would like to ask you a few questions about your Art, and share them with mosaic aficionados of the world !
1 - Robert, you live in Slovenia. You make and teach mosaics there. Your portfolio includes a variety of styles, and I would like to speak about several of them. I first met you through this King George Portrait. King George is a man who lives in harmony with nature. He does not submit nature to his will, but pulls his resilience from nature. I feel a strong current of Life Energy in your mosaics. Where do you get this strength ?
Frederic, maybe this strength is coming from just trusting my own intuition. I just wanted to make this mosaic portrait, because I just admired the whole story King George represents. OK, I’m really strong in making portraits, but personally I really like the more intuitive process of making mosaics and in this case it was a combination of both aspects, making a mosaic portrait in a very intuitive way. Normally I never make portraits in that way.
2 - One other amazing project you have been involved with is a monumental mosaic Dragon in Brac. A community project. Can you tell us more about this, how did you get involved with this project, how big is the Dragon, how many people were involved, when will it be complete ? I understand there is a stone circle beside the site of the Dragon, are these prehistoric remains ?
This is for sure one of my most favourite mosaic projects. Actually it is a dragon lady and she is 8 m long. The dragon lady isn’t finished yet. About half of the dragon is covered already with ceramic tiles and at the end of April we have to cover the rest. It is a volunteer project, nobody gets paid for anything and we are just there, because we love to be creative and without an amazing team of enthusiasts who helped me a loooot, this project would still be just an idea.
We built that dragon on Brač island on the Geaviva site (www.geaviva.net) and the owner of this site is Sabine Engelhardt and it was her idea to make the dragon, because the history of Brač is closely connected to dragons. There is even a dragon cave on the island and you should really visit it, because also the guide who makes the whole tour is really great!
After a few days of making the dragon it turned out, that it had a lot of female energy, so from then on it’s a lady. You can see more pictures of the whole process here : http://www.robertlisac.com/mosaic-dragon-statue-on-brac/
The stone circle is actually a geomantic structure, because Sabine is practising geomancy and is giving also workshops on this topic. Geomancy is like feng shui, but the approach is more Western orientated and much more practical. Today the stone circle serves as a place for geomancy workshops, dancing workshops, permaculture workshops and of course for meditation.I think, that Sabine created something really great !
I have to say, that also Ilonka Vukaš a croatian mosaic artist, who lives in Germany helped a lot in the second phase to cover the dragon lady with ceramic tiles. You see, it’s a project where everyone is welcome and if anyone is interested to participate in this project to finish the dragon on 25, 26 and 27 of April, you are kindly invited to do so, but please contact Sabine : www.geaviva.net.
3 - For the past year or so, you have become more and more involved in Mikromosaics. I even remember reading a post of yours explaining how you made your own ceramic micro tesserae. This is a fascinating aspect of your work. Not only do you make mosaics, you also make the ceramic you use to make your mosaics ! Can you tell us more about making your own mosaic material ?
I wish I could answer this question in a short way, because there is so much to say about this topic. The main reason why I make a lot of my mosaic materials by myself is that if I want to buy it, it’s just to expensive and very often I don’t even like the materials, because they are not unique and therefore the mosaic is looking like very other mosaic. So, I found out, the more I’m involved in making my own tesserae, the more soul the whole mosaic has. Of course this is my opinion and it has not to be true for other mosaic artists. So I started to experiment with it a lot, I was even pit firing my tesserae and these were experiments, some went wrong, but the result was actually always positive, because I learned a lot. Here are more about pit firing clay tesserae : http://www.robertlisac.com/pit-firing-micro-mosaic-tesserae/
4 - Back to the Micromosaics. It is a mosaic form I do not know much about. Many artists around the world make micromosaiks. Can you tell us a little more about this style of mosaic and why you have been attracted to it.
There are several reasons why I like to make micro mosaics at the moment.
1. With the birth of my daughter a lot of things changed and I found out, if I wanted to stay creative I had to use the small amount of time whenever I could to work a little bit on my mosaics and micro mosaics are perfect to do just that. All you have to do is taking a box out of the drawer and then you can just start. With « normal » mosaics it’s not that easy.
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| Timelines, 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4") |
2. I’m some kind of minimalist working on a such small level is much closer to a green living philosophy, than big making mosaics from artificial materials.
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| Windows of opportunities, 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4") - Sold |
3. I just love it, although it’s a sadomasochistic process...
5 - You also have experimented with Pebble mosaics. I even remember an interview you made of a great Pebble mosaic artist. Some of the first Greek mosaics we have are located in Pella, in Macedonia. They were made of tiny pebbles. Do you harvest them yourself on a beach or on a river bank, or do you purchase them ?
As I told before, the more I’m involved in the process of making my own materials, the better the result. So, I avoid buying pebbles, because there are everywhere and this is why I’m not a normal tourist, when I’m somewhere at a river or on a beach with beautiful pebbles. That’s why I’m always looking down instead of looking around ;-).
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| Let the sun shine on me 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4") |
6 - Your work is definitely and vibrantly modern, and yet, mosaics are one of the earliest form of Art we have from our prehistoric ancestors. When you create one of your mosaics, you repeat the same moves our Roman ancestors were using to create theirs. Is that a part of your inspiration ?
You made a good point here. Yes, of course I like the idea, that mosaic artists were making the same things in their own way as I do today. But for me personally I do more like the crazy paving style, because it’s more dynamic. Can you imagine King George done in a Greek or Roman way ? I can’t, but I do respect these classical styles a lot, because they started the whole thing.
7 - It seems that like me you believe an artist should be involved in teaching art, and helping people realize they too can, and should be creative, I understand you give classes and seminars. Can you tell us more about these ?
Bruce Lee once said : "Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own". This is how I was teaching martial arts and this is how I teach making mosaics. I try to give them what my students need, I try to help them to discover their style right from the beginning, because I believe that mosaics should serve to the people and not the opposite way. That’s why it’s much more important, if they learn to express themselves, the more they will express themselves, the better also the technique will be. My goal is to give workshops also in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and everywhere else where they speak English, because the Slovene market is so small and I enjoy travelling, teaching and of course meeting other mosaic enthusiasts.
8 - Beside the fact that it stands on the beautiful Adriatic sea, I do not know much about your country. Your main Website is written in Slovenian language. You have sites in English and German on the net. Do you sell lots of your work outside of Slovenia ? Are there Galleries in Europe where people could see your work ? Please give us the links to these places where we can meet you on the net ?
Frederic, you have to come to sLOVEnia, we have beautiful mountains, the sea, caves and tons of cool pebbles ;-) and of course good wine and beer.
Contact Robert Lisac:
My Slovene homepage is : www.robertlisac.com
My German homepage is www.mikromosaik.blogspot.com
Please feel free to contact me, even if you are not speaking Slovene or German, I know some English as you see and if you have any question or comment, please let me know.
My email address is : roartdoo@gmail.com .
And of course you can also join my FB fanpages :
https://www.facebook.com/robertlisacartist or
https://www.facebook.com/mikromosaik .
Frederic, thank you so much for this interview and this great opportunity.
I am a French Mosaicist established in Alabama, USA. I blog about all things mosaic ! If you enjoyed this interview of Robert be sure that by subscribing to my:
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