Rhagodia Mosaics - The Mermaid Mosaic July 2010 to July 2011

The Diving Mermaid and the Twirling Mermaids

The air conditioner transformed into an outboard motor

Lola - lolling on her fantasy rock and "reflecting"

Rhagodia Mosaics _ Creating the Mermaid Mosaic July 2010 to July 2011

My ten year plan is to transform the exterior of my modest, forty year old cream brick home into a tranquil mosaic covered haven.

The plan was dreamed up during July 2010 as I struggled to cope with a flare up of psoriatic arthritis. Bed ridden, and under the influence of self prescribed pain medication, I realised that I needed a Project to focus my thoughts. A project that I could look back on and see that I had travelled through a difficult time; and had come out the other side with something to show for it.

I’d recently finished some mermaid mosaic works for Exhibition. I still had more mermaid designs in my sketch book. One was of a mermaid lolling against a fantasy rock while holding a mirror.

I was studying a Vocational Graduate Certificate at that time, with “Reflective Activity” being a component of the course. The idea of a narcissistic mermaid being “reflective” appealed to me. (Or maybe that was the influence of the pain medication?)

Each day, I shuffled outside to the carport, and stuck tiles directly on to the cream brick wall. For some months, half an hour a day was all I could cope with before I shuffled back inside. When people visited, I waved my arms in the general direction of the wall and verbally outlined my plan. When I talked about using permaculture design principles to turn a problem into a feature by transforming the air conditioner on the wall into a motor boat, most people just nodded their heads but I could tell they were dubious. Then my brother Tom visited and immediately understood what I meant; with his metre spirit level, he outlined the shape of the boat hull and pencilled in a rudder under the air conditioner.

Two long term friends visited to see if I needed help with daily living – could they shop, clean, do anything for me? I said I needed them to pose on the floor (it was winter; fully clothed, of course). Then I would trace their shapes on the newspaper, cut that out, and then transfer it to the wall. Voila! Two life-sized twirling mermaids.

By December, while I was moving slowly and coping with additional physical activity, I was still not able to reach the higher parts of the wall to create the water meeting the sky. Again, friends and relatives assisted. Not only did they tile the higher aspects of the mosaic wall, many turned up for a “grouting party” in lieu of my birthday party and grouted the sea and fantasy rock as well as Lola, the lolling mermaid.

The diving mermaid has the names of everyone who assisted with the Mermaid Mosaic engraved into the ‘scales’ of her tail.

By July 2011, the carport wall was completely covered in mosaic. During August 2011 a large group of Australian and international mosaic artists visited the Mermaid Mosaic.

I thank my amazingly marvellous friends and relatives for their contributions of time and effort for tiling and grouting along with collecting blue tiles, old crockery and mermaid accessories.

The 8m x 2m wall is now completed and viewings are by appointment.