Animals: Mice
I like the movement of the above piece. Although it’s a small mosaic, there’s a lot going on and five different materials are used. Those silver lines in the background represent shafts of light coming through cracks in the barn wall. In thirty years, these are the smallest mosaics that I have ever made and I am really pleased with them. Believe it or not it’s actually very difficult to achieve character and movement within such a small area - it’s so much easier when you can make big ‘brush strokes’ with the lines of opus! It feels very satisfying to be working on this scale after the vastness of the daunting Barbados floor - click here and you will see what I mean!
This is the second it what will be a series of four small mosaics of mice. The inspiration for this one comes from a second century mosaic known as an ‘asaratron’ - meaning an unswept floor - it’s in the Vatican Museum, Rome, a detail of which shows a little mouse nibbling a walnut. I’ve brought it up to date by using a brightly coloured glass fusion for the niblet of corn - oh, and those crumbs too!
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martin@martincheekmosaics.com
