ART IS BEAUTY

Art expresses itself in various forms and Erik A. Frandsen born in 1957, in Randers, has been exploring many of them conveying a message full of novelty and beauty.

Photocredit @ErikFrandsen FB profile.

ALDO’S STORY

I was 11 and I had just finished elementary school, when one morning, walking through the streets of Valdicastello, my country that had just come out, like all the countries of our Italy, tormented and wounded, from the great war that had seen mine childhood studded with privations, fear and pain, I ran into Lino, who was a worker in a company in Pietrasanta, and who sitting on the stairs of the monument, evaluating me at a glance, asked me: "O boy, but would you like to learn how to make mosaic? My company is looking for an apprentice, but one who wants to work " I looked at him, smiled and said: "Yes, I wish, a lot of desire, but I feel the father and mother and then I will let you know." At the time, you were still giving yourself to older people, as a sign of respect and deference, and it came naturally, without thinking about it too much. I ran away, as fast as I could, to tell my mother about this offer, so wonderful, so bigger than me, that it made me feel already a man, already an adult and, the next morning, I got up with the first cockcrow and, with my heart pounding, I walked towards Pietrasanta with a bag, big, bigger than me, which touched almost on the ground and which contained my lunch. The walk, that morning, as for all the following mornings, was short, because on the way I met Napoleone dell'Erné, who gave me a ride on a bicycle, so that I arrived early in front of the gate by the Ferrari & Bacci company. I went in, started looking around and discovered a world made of colors, shapes, figures, tiny pieces of colored glazes, large wooden counters on which the workers were bent with a hammer in hand, whistling a song, in joy. There were 6 workers and when you think about it today, they weren't much more adults than me, since they were between 18 and 20 years old, but to me, that day, they seemed like men ... I remember that the greatest of all was only 30 years old, but at the time at 30 we were adults, with family and children. At the time we had other responsibilities: we had to rebuild a nation. After a short visit, short because, the job was so long and there was no time to waste, Ferrari, so we called him and so I called him for the rest of our lives together, he gave me a pair of scissors and said: "Copy them on a sheet and then fill the shape with mosaics", reaching out a box full of chunks of multicolored glazes.

FROM WORK TO FRIENDSHIP IN A FLIGHT TO ATLANTA

Sometimes I believe my job is a blessing.

A blessing, someone may think, because of the money it involves.

No, I’d answer, because of the people it involves.

My job puts me in touch, on a daily basis, with people all over the world: different nationalities, different traditions, different customs, but one same purpose: art for art’s sake.

Some of them come and go, like the jobs they bring with them.

Some of them stay, forever, with me.

I was thinking about this when I met with Barbara, my blogger, in a cold and wet February morning evening, when everybody was already out, busy  shopping in the lively and colourful streets of Pietrasanta during the San Biagio’s fun fair.

MOSAICS IN EVERYDAY LIFE

MOSAICS IN YOUR EVERYDAY LIFE: A DREAM COME TRUE

We all tend to believe that mosaics are mainly meant for Art, Churches, Temples and monuments celebrating the grand deeds of historical figures or religious leaders.

But this is not always true.

Mosaics may also become part of your everyday life.

They may enrich the walls of your house, the facings of your shower and the floor of your bathroom.

It all depends on the taste and on the style you want your house to have and your life to be.