Artist profiles

Moora Moora Mosaics

Media: Mosaic

Exhibition and News

I conduct regular workshops and classes and these are included in my profile.

I am happy to do workshops on request. Feel free to get in touch.

I do mosaic art courses for High School and University students pursuing visual arts. Please get in touch for details and to enroll.

Biography

I am a self taught mosaic artist. I have been making unique mosaics for the past 14 years. I specialise in vitreous glass mosaics and also incorporate ceramics, beads, stained glass and found materials suitable for the art. I discovered the art of mosaic by chance and it was love at first sight. My first mosaic piece is a 16 inch mandala style mosaic with yin-yang inspired paisley filled with flowers and leaves. The calling happened when I cut my first ever petal for this piece.

As a child, I used to love drawing, filling in with crayons and painting. Drawing mandalas using compass was my favourite activity in free time in school. . A nature lover from very early on with a spiritual bent of mind, I was drawn to flowers, leaves, mandala patterns, birds, trees and paisleys. So when I first cut a petal out of a tile and started creating daisies using these petals, it was surreal for me. And I knew it in that instant that I want to specialise and excel in this artform.

My mosaics are inspired by life around me, particularly embodying my love of nature through flowers, leaves, birds and trees. Getting the most out of a small 2cm tile is most stimulating for me in my journey. I have learnt and perfected my technique to be able to cut a 2cm glass tile into a variety of shapes and sizes to give texture and dimension to my work, much like how complex embroidery is done using many different stitches. I am excited by the idea of creating movement and fluidity using hard, unrelenting, square tiles. Over the years, I have experimented and improved my cutting skills to be able to achieve fluidity in my work using a medium as hard as glass. All my tiles are carefully hand cut; I do not use any machines to cut or refine the tiles.

The inspiration for my mosaics can come from things I love like nature, objects and life as I see it around me. I make mental notes of shapes, colours, landscapes, clouds, birds and what ever the eyes find appealing. I click pictures of bouquets, busy streets, landscapes or a setting in the countryside, a cottage or just a rabbit in the grass. I maintain a folder of these pictures and these become a source of inspiration when starting a new project.

I prefer to hand draw my initial sketches. I have adapted my style of very organic drawing and do not look for realism or perfection. Once I begin the actual mosaic work, I give a lot of thought to shades, shapes, depths, shadows and perspective. From here on, my mind switches starts thinking about filling in with crayons. Except that it is mosaics and my crayons are my tiles cut up in small pieces and specific shapes. This approach helps me bring in more details like shading as with crayons or paints) and movement like you would with brush or pencil.

The idea of recycle and repurpose is another source of inspiration for my work. To that end, I love mosaicing bottles and discarded wooden items, giving them a new lease of life. As much as possible, I avoid buying new substrata to reduce my carbon footprint. I visit my local recycle centre, charity shops and second-hand furniture shops looking for items suitable for mosaicing on.

All my mosaics are grouted. Grouting is a very important process in making a mosaic as it gives definition to all the hard work that I put into cutting each piece. Grouting outlines and highlights the lines that are created by the very precisely measured gaps that I leave between each piece in a mosaic. Grouting involves the use of a cement-like mixture. However, this process cannot be rushed. I have to be very careful that all the pieces and gaps a-re well covered in grout. After this, the piece is left to dry to allow the grout to be firmly set, cementing all the pieces as placed during the mosaic work. At least a week after, I wipe up the excess grout and clean the mosaic to reveal the tiles. When I see the mosaic in its final glory, it is like my fragile baby has evolved into a strong, tangible instance of my vision.

 

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