 If you've found this page through my CHEYSULI.COM website, you'll know that I write novels for a living and breed/show dogs for a primary hobby. But in 2004 I embarked on a secondary hobby that has become every bit as addictive: mosaics. I have loved the look and texture of mosaics for some 30-odd years. It's a fascinating avenue of expression posing many unique challenges to the artist. While some architectural uses of the medium may be so large and spare that you don't really register them as mosaics, others involve incredibly small and fragile-seeming applications. The breadth of the spectrum of materials is astonishing: broken crockery, vitreous glass tiles, smalti, stained glass, marble (and marbleS), pebbles, found objects, bricks, and hundreds of other components come together to form a whole, be it a driveway entrance wall, walkway, birdbath, address plaque, decorative wall pieces, or the artwork literally under your feet: tile floors. If you have tile countertops in your kitchen or baths, or tile backsplashes, you have a form of mosaics in your home. For many years I have sought a way to express myself in "artwork," such as painting, drawing, sculpting, ceramics, etc. But each experiment was a failure. The images I saw in my head simply could not be translated through my hands to the medium in which I worked. Then after decades of admiring mosaics, I decided to try once more to create art. I started on a very small scale, attempting the typical beginner pieces, then stretched myself a little bit more, and finally began challenging myself with more ambitious pieces. I am very pleased to say that I have finally found a home in an artistic discipline. –Jennifer Roberson
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