If you’re renovating the bathroom or planning a clean up of your garage you might want to consider the worth of those dusty or ugly tiles.
The rejected, discontinued, recyclable and out-of-date are favourite materials of Kyneton-based mosaic artist Esther Rose.
As a fourteen-year-old Esther received a book on mosaics from her Italian-born father, a stonemason. Although drawing and painting have always been a part of her life it was not until her father created a mosaic for the family home that the seed planted decades before began to take hold.
Esther enrolled in a local neighbourhood centre course, she was so impressed with her father’s efforts, and a couple of years later attended an intensive mosaic course in Ravenna, on the northeast coast of Italy.
“Roman mosaic is more art than craft and I knew that was the style I wished to learn,” she says.
Over four weeks she developed her historical and practical knowledge of mosaic starting with the fine art of cutting tiles, “lots of band-aids were provided and there were plenty of cut fingers!” recalls Esther.
Returning to Australia inspired, Esther began the on-going trial and error of design, technique and materials. She loves the shape and flow and restrained colour use of Roman mosaic.
Although the ancient designs provide inspiration for her artwork, which includes mirrors, garden furniture, wall and floor panels, Esther is constantly experimenting with contemporary materials such as concrete sheeting and pavers.
As a result of recent house renovations Esther has moved out of her husband’s shed and into a studio of her own. With three walls of glass windows the small room is light filled and bright with shelves of colour-grouped materials, tubs of glue, ice cream containers filled with cut tiles and a grout colour wall chart.
“In Ancient Rome there were many people involved in the making of a mosaic but I don’t have a slave,” laughs Esther yet she enjoys the solitude of working alone and can happily immerse herself in all aspects of her art for hours.
Esther says she achieves an enormous sense of satisfaction from creating mosaic.
At night she awakes with ideas and patterns dancing in her head and that’s just the way she likes it.
This article was first published in CV Week, 14 October 2004
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