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i
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studied at university which was
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established in
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16th century i spent a lot of time in
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ancient cathedrals
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to listening to organ concerts and as i
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was sitting there there were these
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gorgeous
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glass stained glass windows and mosaics
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on the floor
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of the cathedrals and so it was
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something what i
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was surrounded by i knew uh
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it was part of how i grew up
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who i was and then when we moved to
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oregon
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my kids came one day and had a school
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project
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which was they were supposed to make a
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salmon as
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a mosaic and so we all made a salmon
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together and when i start touching the
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glass
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i have these this feeling i i
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want to do this and so i start doing
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stepping stone
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more and more and and it will eventually
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evolve into
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me doing a community building projects
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with
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uh different communities in portland and
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we do big
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mosaic murals and so i brought people
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from
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different walks of life together doing
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this mosaic project because they
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sit around the tables and after 15
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minutes when they do
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high buy they start having meaningful
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conversations
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and i find that very intriguing as a
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tool for
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social change
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for the particular piece in the planets
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which is in the art in ambassador that
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is
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inspired by literary arts
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about three years ago i was reading book
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called graha sutras
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graham meaning planets and sutras mean
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teaching of
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and it’s ancient hindu texts about the
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planets
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and i have decided to do 11 planets
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meaning mercury venus earth mars
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jupiter saturn uranus neptune
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pluto sun and moon and use the
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mosaic itself to express the uniqueness
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of how mosaic can be put together in
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the whole series of the planets with the
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planets as a piece it has been initially
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made
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into the space which is viewed from 100
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feet away
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at the same time from a feet away so i
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had a challenge as an
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artist to bring something what is very
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interesting involved in a color
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when you see it first but as the viewer
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come
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close to it to find intricacies and
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details
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which is enticing and i
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um decided to use very unusual material
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in mosaic art because there is not only
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glass but there are glass beads glass
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beads which has been sourced from
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my native land from czech republic from
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their lampard glass b’s from italy
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there are glass from india and there are
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also
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anti-cathedral glass more than 100 years
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old from united states
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and i put them together the modern
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pieces with the old meaning the material
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the glass
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and create something which is very
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unusual to put together because it’s 3d
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it’s not flat when you touch it it has
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that
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three-dimensional feel to it
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the answer is it depends it depends
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how technically challenging
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is the piece it can be anywhere
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like a square foot down in 10 hours
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it can be a hundred hours it can be
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several hundred hours
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the planets itself took about three
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months to make
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and the process which i use for that
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particular
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piece called direct method in mosaic
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i have a substrate which is foam like
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looking substrate and has a layer of
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cement on it
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and i basically have to draw the design
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where
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every individual piece is drawn where
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it’s going to be pulled
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then i take a sheet of glass i score it
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and i
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cut it into pieces which look like
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strips
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and then from those strips i take a
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mosaic
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nippers and i cut the shapes which come
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in and are glued into the face itself
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and then it sit for about two days to
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harden it
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and then come the challenging part where
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in order to make
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mosaic durable i work with grout it’s
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not like that in
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mosaic small tea let’s say in italian
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work which you see that
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they don’t use grout but
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for the planet itself i basically spread
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a layer of cement over it let it
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sit for about 15 minutes and start
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cleaning it
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and what was technical challenge in the
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piece i did
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is that it’s 3d so you have the beads
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sticking out of it and there are
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lumpered beads which has like little
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dots on them
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or they’re african beads which are hand
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carved
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so it’s very tedious work and not many
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people
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does it for this particular reason
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because the cleaning itself
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it’s very short period of time because
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it’s basically hardening cement
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very quickly so it’s like you cannot go
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and have a lunch
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you have to work and get it out and then
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eventually i work
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with a steel wool which basically take
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all the impurities so if you come close
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to it
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there is a like clean look
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to to the mosaic piece and with the
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beads in particular there are some
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gorgeous beads in in that piece
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uh