We only have one table in the house as our furniture shipment has not arrived yet. But the family needs it for eating, homework, emailing and chatting! So I can impossibly use it for the very dusty work on the AYVALIK MOSAIC. I need to go to get my own table. This cries for a trip to the builders market. Hmmm! Where is the builders market and how do I get there? Google maps would help but how can I talk to the shop assistants ? I hate to expose myself again to the situation of not being able to communicate with the society I am living in. But what can I do? I will not be able to keep working on the mosaic if I stay in the house. Martin lends me his driver and off we go in our car. I insist on driving, because I want to practice, and he directs. But, I did not take into account that can not understand what he says, so we end up stopping at every …

On Monday evening of Sept 21 I arrive in Brasilia, with a flight directly from Paris where I was together with our eldest daughter who just started to study in Paris. She had no choice but to come with me and see the part of the mosaic, depicting a scene of the judgement of Paris,  in the Louvre  which was found in the 1930 in Antioch (now Antakya/Turkey) and was split among the parties that sponsored the excavation at that time. Today you can see the parts of the mosaic in 4 different museums in the world: the Louvre Princton University, Worcester Art Museum and Wellesley College  in the US and some small parts of geometric patterns from the edge of the mosaic remained in Antakya Mosaic Museum I am fascinated by this story in archeological history. There is a great book about this and the mosaic: The Arts of Antioch: Art Historical and Scientific Approaches to Roman Mosaics and a Catalogue of the Worcester Art Museum Antioch Collection The book was one of the …

And I really feel that I  and THE MOSAIC have come home! Knowing that this home is not where my family is gives me a crunch in the stomach. The fish figures that were still wrapped for two weeks are taken out of their bubble wrap blankets and seem to be happy to hear the waves of the aegean sea for the first time. I arrange my workplace  in the patio in front of Santimetre’s former atelier. In the morning I just have to walk through the garden and down a few steps to be at  work. Finally I again manage to set up a working routine, especially for the background tesserae as they are placed mainly in line but still have to be put down thoughtfully in order to achieve a good mix of shades of beige. I can visit THE HOUSE for the mosaic every day and feel completely happy and relaxed. I can go and smoke a cigaret on the roof top of the atelier and see the sea and the sun …