What’s Black, white, and read everyday? Barcodes of course. Few artists have experimented with these simple graphic icons. But wouldn’t you have guessed it, I found an artist who turns them into mosaics! Florida based artist Scott Blake has devoted his creative passion to barcodes. From web work to paintings, Blake has dabbled in almost every field of artistic expression. Due to my love for photo mosaics, I want to focus on his digital mosaic portraits. I appreciate that these mosaics have an actual pattern to them and are not simply laid on a vertical and horizontal grid. 

I haven’t been to many Broadway shows, but I can’t pass up the opportunity to see Cinderella live on stage! While reading about the show, I stumbled onto the Cinderella Fan Mosaic, an online photo mosaic that’s created in real-time! Cinderella fans can upload their photo to show their love and support for Fran Drescher and Carly Rae Jepsen on their Broadway debut.

I’m always on the hunt for fresh mosaic ideas, big or small. Big mosaic projects can be challenging, but very rewarding in the end. Created by artist Gerhard Marx in cooperation with Spier Architectural Arts, this larger-than-life mosaic of an aerial photograph of Johannesburg, South Africa spans 56 panels and weighs nearly three tons! Spanning five months of work by seven mosaic artists and nine apprentices to complete, it was unveiled at the 2013 FNB Joburg Art Fair in Johannesburg.

November is American Diabetes Month and I’ve been looking for a unique way to honor my late grandmother who suffered from type 2 diabetes. What I found was that the American Diabetes Association has collaborated with Picture Mosaics to create an online photo mosaic dedicated to those effected by diabetes. As you know, I love photo mosaics, so I was immediately drawn in by this concept.

When I was very young, the first piece of art I was introduced to was Van Gogh’s Starry Night. I was truly moved by it. The sweeping, textured winds, and the enormous stars were things that I, as a child, could easily relate to. So, when I found a photo mosaic of Starry Night with actual Hubble telescope photos as the cells, I was again re-absorbed into the piece.

While on another late night web hunt for unique mosaics, I found a project that really caught my eye. Chicago artist Mary Ellen Croteau has collected enough plastic bottle caps to arrange them into an 8’x7′ mosaic self portrait. Except where the whiteboard was showing through, no paint was used during the mosaic process, nor was the source image superimposed on the backing board – we’re looking at a true mosaic here!

*UPDATED 9/3/2013*

I was catching up with a friend from Montreal recently who told me about an interesting festival that was approaching. Apparently, throughout the weekend of August 16th-18th, Canadian Living Magazine is inviting Canadians nationwide to submit their photos to an online, streaming photo mosaic for their 2013 PhotoFest! Right away, I went to the website to explore as much as I could, and to my surprise I found out that this streaming mosaic concept was provided by Picture Mosaics, whom I’ve written about in the past.

I was recently at an event in Boston, MA hosted by United Way, and I saw something that really caught my eye. And was perfect for this site. I noticed some sort of moving photo mosaic on a large, HD monitor with a green screen next to it. Upon further inspection, I found that you could have your photo taken on the spot and watch as your photo was added to the mosaic on the monitor. I wish I could say I was surprised when I approached the mosaic attendants only to find out that this real-time interactive mosaic was created and hosted by our friends at Picture Mosaics.

Have you ever looked at a photo or a piece of art for what feels like an eternity?  Your eyes continue to scan over it. There’s something about it keeping you fixated, but your mind just can’t seem to grasp its mystery.  In my web-travels, I stumbled upon an article on PetaPixel featuring the work of Bela Borsodi, a New York-based photographer who has particularly framed this photo to yield very interesting results!