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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