Sick Day Mosaics

Well well well, aren't you lucky? Two posts in one day! And all because I caught a case of the plague. Though to give my germs the benefit of the doubt, if they're not bubonic related, they might be swine flu or maybe SARS. I'm fairly convinced. But enough about me and my disease, let's talk art!

So as not to infect the entire studio, I spent the day working from home today, tackling a project for my gouache class. This week we were playing with using gouache to mimic other materials, in this case, mosaic. Goache is a pretty excellent type of paint - it dries fast, it's opaque, and most importantly it builds up and layers wonderfully. Using the gouache over a dark field of burnt umber, it is indeed possible to paint loads and loads of teeny tiny, itty bitty squares, building up the paint until it has the feel of mosaic tile... which is how I spent the past six hours.

And because we were using it to mimic an older art form, one with its roots in the Greek and Roman era, the theme of our assignment was "Emperor Obama". (N.B. Excuse me, while I just make one quick disclaimer. This is not a political statement, nor should it be taken as such. I daresay most of you lovely people out there in blog land already know my political leanings, as I tend to be vocal about such things. But again, please do not infer, assume, or read into this project as anything other than a piece of art that I had fun making to fill the constraints of a homework assignment. End serious note.)

First try, just playing with method, I did a one inch square. Definitely a little smooshy looking, but an ok first attempt.

And without further ado:

The Empresident