Every month is The National Mosaic Art Month, if you’re lucky
This month is almost behind us and as your favorite blogger, I feel the need to say something about it. Aside from being awfully rainy where I currently am now (I love rain, so don’t feel sorry for me), May is also the month of flowers, huge celebrations and of course, signing petitions to remake the last season of Game of Thrones. (*insert bitter laughter here)
All jokes aside, that last space-mosaic blog I wrote got me thinking: are mosaics everywhere? After one long mind-boggling hour spent staring into the abyss that my laptop screen sometimes becomes, I reached a pivotal conclusion: mosaic art truly (madly, deeply) is everywhere. So we should stop mourning the death of Daenerys and let Bran have his reign, while we focus on turning this May into something positive. On the same note, what is more positive than mosaics?!
I won’t underestimate your knowledge and tell you how May got its name, or why this festivity is on that day. I’m pretty sure you don’t care about that and quite frankly, neither do I. You didn’t come to this blog to read some general info about the history of May or its linguistic heritage. You also didn’t come here cuz you expect me to puke rainbows at you. You know we “keep it one hunnid” here and when things need to be said — we say ’em. (#JonSnowforever) However, let’s lose that edge for this one post. Let’s use today to relax, put on our Obama-dad-jeans, light a barbecue (charcoal one, it’ll be tastier) and find mosaics in EVERYTHING.
First of all, the month of May is the month of some pretty weird things. Once I started doing my research, I was amazed by the sheer ridiculousness of it all. I am telling you May is the Shia LaBeouf of months, that’s how freaky it is. And it can all be connected to mosaics. One of the weirdest “titles” of this month is that it is the month of asparagus. I kid you not, May is the Asparagus Month. Needless to say, we don’t really “Stan” asparagus, but it is undoubtedly healthy, and Romans seemed to love it. Some of the most famous Roman mosaic art dating to 350 to 375 CE depict asparagus, and it was a popular detail in mosaics throughout the Roman period. I am telling you, it was all about mad emperors, orgies, and asparaguses in Rome.
Now let’s go with something logical — May is also the Flower Month. Since everything is blooming and blossoming, nature is thriving, people are sneezing and taking antihistamines, etc. You know the drill, after all, it is May. And no, Robert Plant wasn’t lying when he sang about the May Queen’s “love so warm and tender”, but you can’t expect him to sing about snot, wheezing, and rashes, can you? On the other hand, no one can deny the colorful beauty of May. Nothing says “Spring” like a green plain fringed with vibrant flowers. There is a number of mosaic artists depicting flowers in their masterpieces and it would be ungrateful to name just one as the top of the notch. However, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and since the beholder in this blog is me, I have to say that I enjoy Yulia Hanansen’s floral mosaic designs the most. Her floral mosaic artwork manages to be both beautiful and insightful. Some would argue that flowers are simply pretty and there is nothing deep about them, but Hanansen’s mosaics challenge that theory in the best way possible.
Now let’s go straight back to being weird by adding that May is also the National Duckling Month. These days May is celebrated by people who own pet ducks, a variety of animal rights groups and vegans. However, when Senator Jesse Helms introduced the bill that made May the National Duckling Month, he did so referring to ducks as a food source. One of the reasons was: “demand for duckling has increased at restaurants by 300% to 400%” back in 1988 when the bill was created. Soooo, quack-quack…quack?
On a more cheerful note, some of the eldest Roman mosaics depict ducks. Floors of the ancient city of Ephesus are adorned with a variety of animals, including lovely waddling ducklings. Which reminds me, let’s recap and revise for a second. It was actually all about mad emperors, orgies, asparaguses, and ducks in ancient Rome.
So there you go, I hope you had some laughs and learned something new. I like to think you always end up being somewhat richer after reading my posts. I’m practically the Dumbledore of mosaic blogging. I’m kidding of course, but on a more serious note, here are some honorable mentions: National Egg Month, National Hamburger Month, National Strawberry Month, etc. With that being said, May sounds like that dude from “Split” with 23 personalities and it seems the only thing keeping it out of the shrink’s office is all the pretty flowers. Lol! Joking. We love you May, don’t kill us.
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