Making Mosaics

By Ruben Altidor

I was senior in high school when I participated in the first science fair. An exhibit of the science project is on the wall in the museum. I am looking at it right now. I can't believe how far I have come in this time. This week I helped a group of eight children create a piece of mosaic art that is now also at the museum.

I have just graduated with an electrical engineering degree from the Turks and Caicos Islands Community College. While in college I began assisting with the TCNM kids program. I am an engineer. Far from an artist. But this summer I led a whole group of students completing artwork.

We just finished this week creating mosaics. We focused on our islands culture and did images such as The Lighthouse, Boats on the Sea, and Saltracking. I led the Saltraking group. We smashed and assembled various colourful tiles together. Dr. Neal Hitch took some time working on the Lighthouse and couldn't finish laying out all of the mosaics in one day.

I came by the museum days after and missed checking out the mosaics until Dr. Hitch reminded me to take a look at them. They came out pretty great, even better than I expected. I was really impressed by the creative artwork of these young kids. The results were a sight for sore eyes - so put on shades while looking at them (talk about sun in the islands)! Aliate, Neal and others were judging the mosaics and found them all to be winners, but for me the saltrakers are the best!

Tuesday with Tuvol

This week we have finished the mosaic art. The mosaics will be on display in the museum garden for all to see. The past few days with Children's Club has been very fun, but the mosaic art work was the best.

When we did the mosaic art it was like making real art. We went through the steps to make it. Like choosing an image and then choosing colors that we were going to use. Then this week we actually crushed tiles and used mortar to create our images with tiles and glass. This was hard for some of the younger children. But the older kids took the lead and worked very hard.

I loved it! And we have created something that you can really look at and they look great.

On Saturday the 21th we will be going to Gibbs Cay to close off the Children's Club

Tuesday with Tuvol

This Tuesday the Children’s Club will be finishing off the mosic art. Mosic Art is when you make art by using glass, paper or rocks. It is not that easy but its very fun after we are done it will be put in the museum garden for everyone to see. After we are done we will have lunch prepared by Aliatte it has been very fun so far.