The Classes Begin

My classes with mosaic artist Martin Brown are just what I was hoping for: learning the fundamentals of working with glass and tile, down to how to most efficiently hold the tools. It is both easier and much much more difficult than I imagined. I'm finding cutting the glass and tile to fit my design to be pretty easy, but then I barely know what I'm doing, so I could be completely fooling myself. The design and artistry of mosaics is still a complete mystery, however. There are so many different ways to make a shape, blend colors, form curves, fill a space, leave a space, not to mention the whole grouting mess. This is going to be fun.

The studio is in Martin's flat, with high ceilings and huge windows looking out over Calle Valencia, The "class" is Susan Stewart, an American ex-pat that came to Barcelona to teach ESL for a summer and never left, and me. Martin is a Brit that lived for years in Mexico City and fell in love with mosaic art there, and made it his artistic medium of choice. Our work table is surrounded by Martin's fabulous and intimidating works of mosaic art, which he uses frequently to illustrate concepts he's teaching, a very effective learning method for me.

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The class has a nice flow of theory and practice. Writing that sentence, I just realized that the last "class" I took that involved this kind of art theory and practice was learning to weave years and years ago. I really shouldn't let so much time lapse between learning new ways of expression.

We are creating our pieces using glass, the same glass used for stained glass pieces. The design I chose is a little seascape with kelp and sea stars, with blue pieces creating a sense of water currents flowing. The sea stars have lots of tiny little fiddly bits of colored glass, so it's taking a long time to create the structure of the mosaic. But it's affording me the opportunity to use the tools a lot, to use different tools, and to think hard about how to make the puzzle pieces that fit in the puzzle of the design.

It is really really fun.

A surprising and joyful part of the class is Alfie, Martin's 7 month old Westie. Such a cutie, and such a lover. The sweet old man Bruno, a dachsund mix rescued from the streets of Mexico City, comfortably hides under a blanket, emerging a few times during the class to wag and bow with great peace and dignity. It's lovely.

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