amphibian

Mosaics have been produced for thousands of years. The whimsy of patterning stones and other durable elements has long been a means of expressing the delight, beauty and strangeness of the surroundings and oneself. Moreover, mosaics have played an important part in enhancing public facilities, like churches and palaces, whereby specific, quite narrow types of chosen constructions prevail.

In the course of our work in Europe for the sake of finding the optics of vintage posters, we were very fortunate in having brilliant and generous artist friends–now in France, but first met in Toronto, Kim Andrews being a painter, Christine Crepet being a mosaicist. Today we’d like to display, from out of that source in our collection, the magical qualities of this work.

We choose, for our first example, the most odd and daring work, which Christine describes as an amphibian, meaning it can survive on land and in water. Monstrous features come to the fore, with its jagged spine and tail, fashioned out of thick glass brought to a menacing and sustaining point. The large stones along its upper reach serve to characterize a violent attacker. But, getting past that, the chromatic black and gold flourish constitutes a lovely gift of nature. The little toes and lively eye also place this creature as a powerful gem.    Continue reading →