: “While making the Koi mosaic, strangely I began to see it as much more a creature of the air than of water and ‘FREE AS THE AIR’ kept coming into my head as the title for it. When I researched the mythology of the Koi, so strongly embedded in Japanese culture, it said that according to legend, if a koi succeeds in swimming upstream and climbing the waterfalls at a point on the Yellow River called Dragon Gate, it will be transformed from a fish into a dragon – a creature of the air! I love this serendipity!
My own “Dragon Gate” was to represent the easiness and lightness that Koi seem to embody in their hypnotic fluidity. My second goal was to translate the amazing luminosity the fish carries in its scales. I went for a choice of tiles made from irridescent glass, gold and silver,” Nathalie explains.
“Mosaic is a deceptively difficult art form. I am in a constant battle with texture, form and matter to try and render the harsh essential solidity of the mosaic tiles into lightness and fluidity. I have to destroy the inevitable gravity of the mosaic medium in order to create.”