Rachel Sager Mosaics

• Eclypsis
• Explorations
• Geology
• Lithosphere Series
• The Factory Tree
• Touch Stone Series
• Truth & Beauty Series
• Wooden Doors
• Wounded Tree Series
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Rustication as Religion

I am very excited to share with you Rustication as Religion, a larger scale mosaic commissioned by the actor and activist, Ashley Judd for her farmhouse in Tennessee. Ashley’s love of nature and her deep faith and spirituality helped me to create what I like to call a mythologized landscape. This piece was a joy to create, from inception to completion.

One of the definitions of rustication is ‘to go into or reside in the country; to follow a rustic life.’ Living in a world that buzzes with technology, a world that insists on our constant connectedness, many of us find solace in the escape to the elemental truths of nature. In many ways, I see the modern environmental movement of the western world as a replacement for the past passions of religion. The halo symbolizes the religious history of mosaic as an art form. The circle has historically represented the psyche, the ultimate wholeness of life, and /or the union of nature and man. Symbolism and allegory have been an effective way to communicate ideas since man first painted horses on cave walls, and I find them just as powerful a tool for me as a contemporary artist.

This piece is full of surprises, many of which cannot be detected in photography. The Sinnemahoning Creek driftwood from which I built the tree offers natural crevices wherein I could tuck and hide bits of colorful smalti and unexpected materials. The stone wall is built from Pennsylvania sandstone. If you look closely, you can see that each stone in the wall has its own shade of color. I chopped up a different rock into tiny pieces and then reassembled them by color creating each section of the wall. One of the miracles of natural stone is its seeming drabness at first glance. It’s not until cracking it open that one sees the gifts of subtle color distinctions.

MATERIALS: Western Pennsylvania sandstone, Sinnemahoning Creek driftwood, vintage Italian smalti, unglazed porcelain tile, 24karat gold smalti, slate, shale, fossil rich sandstone, stone concretions, on quarter-sawn native Pennsylvania oak frame