When the initial lockdown happened in the Netherlands, I had just finished a new series of mosaics and I planned all sorts of events to accompany the new launch. All the work I’ve been doing for the past couple of months has abruptly lost its momentum, leaving me shocked, exhausted and just really disappointed. Within a couple of weeks: the exhibition, the workshops, some commissioned work and planned holidays with the family, all fell through. We have all been through this. We all had to come up with new routines and manage new ways of working that is, if we were able to continue to work at all.

After taking some personal time off to process everything that's been happening, I went back to the studio. Putting the finished series on hold, I decided to start fresh, allowing myself to let go of any expectations and to just create.

Mosaics helps me to learn and to practice the notion that when faced with uncertainty all we can do is to let go of our need for always being in control. After all, isn’t creativity a manifestation of change?

Come to think about it, it was only due to the COVID pandemic that I decided to join BAMM and participate in the BAMM Online Forum. And I’m so glad I did. The talks were so inspiring!

“Drawing on Time” a talk by Joanna Kessel and Dugald MacInnes focused on the mosaic practice as a commitment. I find their approach to mosaic making so thoughtful and humble. Joanna’ and Doug’s dedication and passion being unquestionably the main forces behind their work. At the same time the clear message that resonated with me is that there is no such thing as perfection, there are no absolutes. Serendipity can only occur when we are not in control of the outcome.

What if, as encouraged by Lillian Sizemore’s and Helen Bodycomb, we start seeing mosaics as a process rather than as a finished product? What if following Gino Severini's thought the mosaic potential and willingness already exist in the material itself, and it is the artist's job to invent it and to interpret it?

What I do know, is that creativity and uncertainty are and have always been interlinked, and that we, the mosaicists are already well-equipped to overcome uncertainty through mosaic art practice. It is only by allowing myself to sit in the discomfort of the unknown, I can let my work evolve, to develop and to grow as an artist.

My mosaic teacher used to say “one tessera does not make a mosaic”. A mosaic is a collection of carefully crafted pieces viewed simultaneously, where parts become a whole. While mosaic practice demands from us the discomfort of the unknown, at the same time it is also grounding us in the present, and it teaches us that everything that exists has its purpose, that we're all parts of a whole.