Cherry Blossoms … A Lesson Learned

As a mosaic artist, I find inspiration from many places; scenes outside my car window, a picture from one of my travels, a tree I see through my living room window, or even a simple greeting card.  From these images a desire to make art springs up.

For example, Cherry Blossoms was a thank you card  I  received from a friend.  I enjoyed the image so much (mostly the circular, colorful blossoms) that I wanted to make a Cherry Blossoms mosaic.

The mosaic was made, and in finishing the piece, a lesson was learned.

The design was too complex to use the medium of mosaic  at this scale.  Too many small pieces in the background meant I lost the image and the mosaic looked inconsistant and broken-up.

The background beige tone and the green and pinks of the blossoms were too similiar, which also contributed to losing the image of the mosaic.

In the end, the tree trunk is the only part of the image that really stood out.

Mosaic as a medium is complex, and I am finding that although an image may be beautiful in one art form (in this case, watercolor) it doesn’t necessarily mean it will make a smooth transition into  mosaic.  I now more fully consider size, spacing, background layout, complexity of shape and color tone when an image inspires me to  make mosaic.  It may be that I only appreciate the image in its original form..and that’s  okay.

But, I have also learned that there will be instances as well, when a image can and will make the transition into the mosaic medium beautifully…

I am grateful for the lessons learned along the way…