Museum and Mosaics

> I LOVE mosaics. I think my first exposure was in elementary school. I don't remember what grade I was in, but the school was creating a huge mosaic, and each child was able to place one tile. The finished art was hung in the auditorium/lunch room. I remember thinking how neat it was that my little tile square was part of that huge image that I looked at each day. I didn't think much about mosaics after that until years later...in Chicago, I fell in love with a huge mosaic by Marc Chagall. It was gorgeous, expressive, and surprisingly (to me) was a great medium for his work. Ever since then, I've been drawn to mosaics.

> My husband and I just returned from a trip to Newport, CA with my sister and her husband. While there, we headed up the coast and visited the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades. What a fantastic place! It displays Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities within Roman-inspired architecture, and is surrounded by beautiful courtyards and Roman-style gardens. It was a wonderful collection in a gorgeous setting, and even my husband (who is not a huge fan of museums) loved it.

> I took lots of photos (flash off, of course!) and wanted to share several of the mosaics that I fell in love with. There's so much more to see there (this is really not representative of the collection at all!), but these are photos of some of the things that caught my eye.

The first 2 images are from the borders of huge mosaics. While I didn't necessarily love the subject matter of the actual pieces, I just LOVE the borders.

The next 2 images show inlay in one of their garden seating areas. The second image shows a little more of the area for context (as seen from above).

Yes, I'm one of those people who take photos of the floor...when it's this cool, I have to! The flooring is custom. And see the curved lines? Yep, tile inlay.

A mosaic and shell fountain in one of the gardens. The second photo shows detail of another part of this same fountain, and you can see the shells better.

> Beautiful, aren't they? It makes you love mosaic and inlay a little more too, right? Well, that concludes our tour for today. Thanks for joining me.