Thursday, March 09, 2006

(149) Changing into A Mosaic

On the evening of February 24th 1988 I was debating what title to give this work.

I had been calling it Pointillist Self-Portrait, the idea being that an inadvertent image of the author came through the isolated incidents. But I was not too happy with that and started jotting down alternatives based on the same concept.

A Pointillist Self-Portrait, A Pointillist Portrait, Pointillist Portrait, The Pointillist Self-Portrait... and then I thought of A Mosaic Portrait, and A Meaning Mosaic, before finding myself drawn to, simply, A Mosaic.

At 9:40 a.m. the next morning I was watching B.B.C TV and a show came on called Short Changes. I had never seen it before. It seemed to have a D.I.Y theme and one item showed how to make a mosaic, the finished image being a fish. I turned on my TV again that lunchtime to catch the 1 p.m. News on B.B.C 1, but I had mistakenly tuned to B.B.C 2. I let it run, and at 1:10 another programme began, one which I had also never watched before. It was called The Craft Hour. The presenter´s first words were

“We turn the old into the new with some dazzling mosaics...”

The idea was the construction of mosaics from pieces of old bric-a-brac. The item did not appear until 1:43 p.m when it was introduced -

“If you thought Mosaics were something that died out with the Romans...”

The Craft Hour concluded with -

“Do remember to wear goggles if you try to make a mosaic at home.”

Later I changed the provisional title again to A Grail Mosaic... before finally deciding that the best idea would be just to call it what it is.

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