Ivan writes:
Mosaic art being a branch of applied art, barely underwent any crises from its first shy appearances in Ancient times. We could say in brief, that in a way the Babylonian people discovered mosaic, Greeks made it harmonious, Romans made it elegant, and in the end Byzantines gave it a twist of incomparable exquisiteness. Mosaic is an expression of style and eternity throughout time continuing up to now. For me creating a mosaic is like solving a puzzle. Mastering various techniques allows me not only to solve the puzzle but to control the shape of the pieces.
I create my mosaics from hundreds of tesserae, or individual pieces using different materials like stone, glass, metal, cardboard or smalt. I always consider the durability, thickness, color, light reflection and ease of cutting when I choose my materials. When I create the design for my mosaics I always reckon that when the human eye sees a mosaic, an interesting thing happens. The mind eye looks at all those small pieces, makes sense out of them as a whole, and assimilates the image in the viewer s mind. I try to adopt an image for a mosaic by emphasizing the elements that strengthen the design while simplifying, or eliminating, those that confuse the eye. I think that a stylized approach gives the mosaic a contemporary feel that enhance it. I create my mosaics by the direct method –pressing directly the tesserae into the base using adhesive.
In my works I try to mix some of the most ancient and the most modern forms of art. I try to touch the illusion of eternity, and combine the many influences I am surrounded by when creating my contemporary works. My mosaic art resembles very much planting a tree, because the mosaic is just like a millennium tree, it is something that lasts forever. Each artwork is not just a piece of my own, on my creative journey, it is a window into the spiritual world.
The Three Holy Hierarchs
I was inspired to create the mosaic of The Three Holy Hierarchs – Sts. Basil the Great, John Chrysostom and Gregory the Theologian after seeing a fresco from the Meteora Monasteries in Greece. The mosaic represents the traditional Byzantine icon style of XI-XII, combine with my own vision and contemporary methods to achieve the exquisite result. The materials I used for this mosaic are acrylic, gold, cardboard and wood.
The Radiance of the Glagolitic letters
In these mosaics I wanted to show one different approach to the typical materials for mosaics. The tesserae are made of bronze letters in Glagolitic alphabet. The Glagolic is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It was founded by Constantine-Cyril around 862 to863 for the translation of liturgical books from Greek into Slavic languages (particularly Old, also called Old Slavic language or Old Church Slavonic).It Is known for their complex and exotic graphics. The name was not coined until many centuries after its creation, and comes from the Old Slavic. The verb Glagoliti means “to speak”. Most of the letters have also numerical meaning, like the Greek letters used in science as mathematical symbols and names of stars.
‘Every age has a keyhole to which its eye is pasted’
‘The Wraith’
‘The Saviour’
‘Beautiful Mess’
Beautiful Mess is my last work ,with it I wanted to create something different by using new materials and ideas.The idea to create a mosaic of eyes is to illustrate the eyes that can see everything.Every eye has its own definition and perception of beauty,like every one of us see beauty in a different way.So you have all these eyes trying to find the beauty even in the biggest mess.
More of Ivan’s work can be seen at http://ivandjidjev.com/.
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