All posts filed under: Mosaics around the world

Trauer nach dem Erdbeben in der Türkei und Syrien

Published by gertrud

I am mourning with the people in Turkey and in Syria about the loss of lives and livelihoods in the region of the earthquake. In 2015 I spent a whole month in the city of Gaziantep learning and working together with Nusret Özdemir, a mosaic master and former security guard of the archeological museum Zeugma where the most beautiful mosaics were discovered in the last century. In his workshop we made the figures of the Ayvalik Mosaic – a project I did in 2015-16 to recreate a whole mosaic floor in ancient technique. During that month I was living in a flat share in Gaziantep with Ayse Ebru Corbaci who is the lead conservationist of the Gaziantep district. I have heard that both are well and their houses are still standing. I haven’t heard about the Zeugma Mosaic Museum in Gaziantep and also the situation at the archeological site. We will get to know about the conditions of these truly magnificent cultural heritage places – first is the care for the people that are insured …

At the Muzzio

Published by gertrud

  Exactly two years ago I spent 3 weeks with the “Watsonville Brillante” Project in Watsonville/CA to learn from them about large scale community art projects. I will report about it at the International Conference of  SAMA (Society of American Mosaic Artists) and SGGA (American Glass artist society on September 30 in Buffalo/NY. Read about this internship for which I received a scholarship of SAMA.The Muzzio is the city of  Watsonville’s community mosaic workshop. Here every afternoon members of the community drop in and help beautifying their city with mosaic works. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays Highschool Students are coming after school to spend a few hours winding down from busy school day breaking and setting mosaic pieces with their AirPods in their ears. When I arrived on September 6 a Croatian board was being started using very small tiles to depict the stitches of a needle work with the typical pattern from Croatia. On Wednesdays is women’s day at the Muzzio. The atmosphere is more chatty! Together with Helga and Suzanne, two Germans I …

This little town of mine let it shine

Published by gertrud

…. this verse slightly altered from a song I once sang with my choir comes to my mind being around Kathleen Crocetti and her mosaic projects in Watsonville. Her dream is to make Watsonville the Barcelona of California together with the young community of the 50.000 inhabitants of a small agriculture town situated in the fertile back garden of Monterey Bay/California. A lot of nutrition is produced and exported here on large farms with immigrants hands. Strawberries, lettuce, artichokes, apples you name it have been tended to since over 100 years by many groups of immigrant workers. Some stayed. At the moment 85% of Watsonville’s population is of Mexican heritage. Still the average income here is a quarter less than that of near by Santa Cruz/CA. The difference in between pitoresque coast dwellings like Monterey or Carmel and Watsonville is striking on first sight. In the coast cities individual wealth designs beautiful cost homes and inviting shop fronts and brings in enough tax money to make sturdy wooden public walkways with views of the beautiful …