Premiere Vision - CARLOTTA

Une fois n'est pas coutume. This post is in French. 

Ce 14 juillet, j'ai ramene en France avec moi 4 mosaiques. Montees sur toile de verre dans mon atelier de Headland, en Alabama, ces 4 pieces incluent "Carlotta", Pomegranate  - le Grenadier (l'arbre, pas celui de Flandres) et 2 nouvelles editions de "Green Eyes". 

Vous voyez ici l'envers des mosaiques collees sur la toile.

Le montage des mosaiques sur toile permet d'en reduire le poids pour le voyage.

A notre arrivee en France, je realisai les supports a coller sur les mosaiques. 

J'enduisis les mosaiques de ciment colle, 

Et collai ces supports sur les mosaiques - c'est ce que nous appelons la methode indirecte, ou les mosaiques sont au depart realisees a l'envers.

Je partis alors en Irlande boire les quelques Guinness necessaires pour laisser au ciment-colle le temps de bien prendre...

Et de retour en Picardie filmai l'operation de la separation de la toile de verre de la mosaique elle-meme..

Je suis un mosaiciste francais etabli des deux cotes de l'Atlantique, en Alabama, et en Picardie. J'ai une grande admiration pour les arts Grec, Romain et Byzantins. Vous pouvez voir mes mosaiques sur mon site mosaicblues. 

Si vous aimez mon travail, avez des questions ou souhaitez simplement parler un peu, vous pouvez me contacter par email a  frederic.lecut@gmail.com ou par telephone au 001 334 798 1639. 

 

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Creative Minds

Last Thursday July 9, I received the visit of 17 kids from Creative Minds Learning Center accompanied by their charming instructors ! 

Some of these kids had participated in our Spring Festival Mosaic Workshop.

I had invited their instructors Christy and Tina to bring them to my shop so they could see what a real mosaic studio could look like. 

I am not sure what they will best remember  of their visit between the figs eaten from the tree, petting the dogs, talking to  the chickens, 

... and the actual visit and explanations inside the mosaic studio.

What is important is that they had a great time ! 

I strongly believe that artists should give back to the communities that support them. No one is an island. without patrons or a market to sustain them, artists and other entrepreneurs would not succeed. 

As I explained in an earlier post, Art is the best way to develop creativity in young people, because they can immediately see the result of their own creativity; and our world will need creators. 

As I am little by little progressing in this artistic career with the support of patrons and clients, I intend to spend more time sharing my abilities with people around me. 

If you have suggestions or ideas about what could be done, or if you would like to participate, please contact me. 

I have quite a few projects in mind and will need help and support. 

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

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

 

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Flying with Mosaics

Although my last mosaics are lighter than they were 5 years ago, they still are 5 to 10 times heavier than a painting of the same dimension. 

This may be why galleries do not like mosaics very much: they find them harder to hang on a wall. Actually, there are now easy ways to hand heavy loads on any kind of walls, at a reasonable cost. I'll review these methods in a next post.

An other negative aspect of a mosaic's weight is  Shipping...

Over the past 2 years, I have sold 4 mosaics in France. Shipping them would have been very expensive, so I simply travelled with them. I carried an extra piece of luggage with my mosaics in it.

As long as you keep the total of added dimensions under 64" (160 cm) and the weight under 50 lb (23 kg, it costs $100.00 for one additional suitcase on a transatlantic flight. 

I have reduced the weight by 70 % by building my mosaics on fiberglass mesh. All that travels with me are the Tesserae glued on a very light mesh. No concrete, no backing board. I now have in France a small studio where I mount my mosaics on their final support and frame them.

Mosaicblues French Studio, Dec 2014

The important point is to pack them very carefully. 

Here are the 4 pieces flying to France with me mid-July 2015.

From top to bottom and left to right : 2 Green Eyes Girls, Carlotta, and the Pomegranate Tree. These 4 pieces are reverse method, so what you are now seeing are their backs. 

I built a wooden crate / suitcase for them. The contour of the crate was made of 3/4 " (19mm) yellow pine wood, the sides of 1/4" (6 mm) plywood, reinforced with fiberglass mesh. 

I placed a sheet of 1/2" (12 mm) insulation foam at the bottom and placed "Carlotta", sandwiched inside an envelope of tar paper on top of the foam.

I slightly sprayed the mosaic with water to increase its flexibility and I placed an other layer of 1/2" foam on top of Carlotta.

I then installed "Pomegranate Tree" on top, also wrapped in tar paper.

Covered it with more insulation...

I placed the 2 Green eyes Girls over this. 

And covered them with another foam sheet. 

I have some space left, which I'll use for various goodies to bring back home (Mexican Chorizzo among other things...)

Next Month I'll tell you more about each one of these pieces coming with me to France...
 

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

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

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Red Scarf

Red Scarf is almost done...

She has been in gestation for quite a while... I found the original image early in 2014. A portrait of a beautiful enigmatic lady !

And I went to work... I wanted, of course, to concentrate on her eye. 

I did my usual graphic work, had the model printed, and started to work in April 2014. 

April 26, 2014.

I usually start with the outside borders. Here I used a beautiful, very hard spotted Green Marble which I knew would contrast nicely with the very reds tones of her veil.

In August 2014, I had added some black granites and began using various shades of red, yellow and orange glasses. 

August 1st, 2014

August 3rd, 2014.

After that, I got very absorbed in various projects and commissions, and spent little time on her until June 2015. 

June 19, 2015

I added quite a few materials, ceramics, porcelains, 

June 19, 2015

Glasses, Van Gogh glasses, most of them brilliantly coloured. 

June 22, 2015

On June 25, tiling was complete !

June 25, 2015

I set Red Scarf's support on June 26, and flipped her on June 28 with a few friends invited to the event !

June 28, 2015, first vision of Red Scarf !

There are still quite a few hours of cleaning and grouting, but we finally can look her in the eye !

June 28, most of the white glue is still there to be cleaned up !

Red Scarf will receive her steel frame and should be available before the end of August 2015. If you are interested by her, please contact me, preferably by email at frederic.lecut@gmail.com. I will post additional pictures of her grouted and framed in August.

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

If you are interested by my work or would 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 

(and I recommend it !)

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Spring Festival Mosaic.

It all started with an email "Frederic, we have this Spring festival on the Headland square in 10 days, do you think you could do a mosaic class for some kids ?"

I was not really thrilled at such a short notice, but when I realized this could be a great opportunity to  further test some ideas I had had in the back on my mind for a while, It became much more interesting !

Could I take 20 kids, teach them how to make a mosaic and get a decent result out of it ? 

In March, I had already experimented at the Wiregrass Museum of Art, with precut glass tesserae.

Each student had taken home their own mosaic. Now was the time to get people to cut their own tesserae. and to use each individual piece as part of a bigger work.

To make things easier, we would  use : 

• Ceramic tiles much easier to cut than stone, glass or porcelain;  
• 2 only colours : Black and White; and 
• 2 only basic designs for everyone to follow. 

I know, these are white and blue...

 

I could not get blue tiles !

On May 19, we set shop on the Headland Square. We had 2 groups of kids, those of ages 7 to 13 accompanied by their parents, and those over 14 by themselves .

At the end of the (long) day, we had 21 small squares mounted on fiberglass mesh. 

I took all of them home to my mosaicblues back yard to put them together on a framed backing board. 

The Panel before grouting.

On June 19, we had the grand presentation of the Panel at the Headland Municipal building. Some of the kids who participated in the project were present.

Everyone - that includes the kids themselves - was very impressed by what they had been able to do.

One important thing about mosaic, is that you can touch them, this is very important to children who have a very tactile reference to the world. 

I had brought the extra mosaic I had not been able to use for the panel (I only needed 20 and I had 21 pieces) and let the children handle it.

This project was made possible because lots of people pulled together. Rhonda Harrison, Executive director of the Headland Chamber of Commerce, Home Depot who gracefully subsidized most of the material and equipment, and the Headland Police Department who financed the rest of the project.

The mosaic is visible in the main hall of the Headland Municipal building on the Headland square.

What's next ? 

Bigger projects - first one will be in partnership with Troy University and should involve 80 to 100 participants, I will keep you posted.  Nexts are being presently discussed. I have big dreams ... And I'll need help ! 

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

If you are interested by my work or would 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 

(and I recommend it !)

SUBSCRIBE to my

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