Cynthia Fisher
My abstract mosaics stem from reflections on a variety of themes, the natural world and science and math concepts being favorites. I begin with lots of pondering, on what I want to create, why, and how will I do so, with material choices and andamento. This term, inherent to the mosaic art form refers to the visual flow and direction produced by the placement of rows of tesserae. My favorite part of the process is when preparation is complete, the mosaic pieces are in hand and I begin to work intuitively, viscerally responding to the materials and how they come together.
My mosaic art is always a dance of materials, constraint of laying motifs, and exacting the most movement from static hard edged forms. I like to use mathematical principals as a starting point on the premise that art and math are inseparable, and when brought down to their basics inherently beautiful. One can begin with geometric forms, but how they are “filled in” leaves the artist with an untold number of possibilities. After completing the central elements in the traditional Roman technique, opus tessellatum, I knew I had had enough of the conformist approach. For the remainder of the artwork I went strictly NON-math to depict the beauty of randomly placed lines and shapes that when completed have their own logic and set of rules.