Blogpost #3: Mosaic Reflection

Upon completion of your mosaic, explain the meaning of your symbol, reflect on the process of making a mosaic, and imagine what it would have been like to create a large scale mosaic in a church over 1500 years ago.

      The symbol I chose to represent was the Christian Dove. In Christianity the Dove represents the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. This is because when the Holy Spirit came down while Jesus was being baptized in the Jordon River, in the form of a dove. I think masking this mosaic is the most painful thing I have ever done. This is because the curved edges of the bird made it so had to fit the squares perfectly in. So, where there were little spaces where the squares wouldn't fit, I had to cut out tiny triangles or rectangles to fill in these spaces. Then when the glue stuck to the paper squares and then to my fingers, it was terrible. Another thing that was quite time consuming was the facts that I had to cut the little squares out. Yet even though with a process that is quite dreary and slow, I found the final product to be quite satisfying and pretty. I feel it turned out quite well, and I was very proud of my work. The colors that I used were light green, dark green, light blue, white and black. The colors I believe symbolize certain aspects of the picture. The light green and dark green, which make up the border, represent the earth and nature. While the background behind the dove, which is light blue, symbolize the sky. Finally the light, which is the dove, is used because white is usually the traditional color of a dove, and also represents peace. The black though, which outlines the dove, actually has no meaning.
            For me just this little, simple paper on mosaic was quite difficult and frustrating to do. So, if I had to do a whole, large scale mosaic, I would probably be driven to insanity. Another factor that would have made it even more difficult is the mortar has a certain period in which it is pliable then it hardens. This means the mosaic had to be done in certain sections but also quite quickly, which when making mosaics is definitely not my strong point. So to conclude, I found this project hard but interesting and in the end quite satisfying.