"The holy grail is to spend less time making the picture than it takes people to look at it." -Banksy

In the small Caribbean town of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica there is an abundance of beautifully displayed broken tile art. It seems that every garden or hotel you stumble upon has pieces of these treasures hidden along the way. This is where my love affair with mosaic began. I owe much of my inspiration to Natacha Nokin, a french mosaicist who has also made Old Harbour her long-time home. (http://www.luluberluart.com/historia.swf) Every time I walk into her gallery I am astounded by the brillant collection of colors and vibrant, energetic art that covers the walls of Lulu Berlu. During my first 6 months in Costa Rica, I was fortunate enough to be able to work in the boutique and witness first hand the creative genius that exudes from Natacha. It was then that I thought to myself, I want to be an artist! I want to make the world more beautiful!

It was a former love interest of mine, though, who taught me to lay down the tiles. He has composed mosaics in places like the Jacaranda Hotel in Puerto Viejo. I have no patience for this, he told me once, as we slaved over an enormous shower floor at my family's lodge. Until that point, I never knew that I was capable

of creating such beautiful things. We spent a month laughing and tiling to make ends meet, and I knew my life would never be the same after that.

A few years later when my beau and I went our separate ways, I found solace in the art that I love. I spent hours tiling the house at Cashew Hill called "Todo Bien". With my ipod by my side, it was easy to get lost in the hypnotic trance that often ensnares me while I work on a project. Sometimes I find myself coming out of my catatonia at the end of a long day's work, stepping back to look at the installation to find myself bewildered by the sight of what my own two hands have created. It's an amazing feeling to dream of a new idea at night and then wake up in the morning and be able to make it a reality. It's also incredibly fulfilling to look at your work and actually like it. I feel completely satisfied by the imperfections in my projects, and I believe that is what mosaic is about: embracing the imperfections. It keeps pushing me to do better, to work harder, to make the next installation more fabulous than the last. I have fallen in love with the art world. Life really will never be the same.