2012 January 29
The Return of the Mosaic Atlas
On 29, Jan 2012 | 6 Comments | In Et cetera | By man-admin
Mosaicatlas.com began as a twinkle in the eye of O’Brien almost ten years ago. The UK-based mosaic artist and former president of the British Association for Modern Mosaics thought that it would be an excellent idea to have a place on the internet where people could share photos of public mosaics and have those photos cataloged by geography – creating, in essence, a “mosaic atlas.”
If you were planning a trip to a new country, you could check to see if there were mosaics in your destination to include in your itinerary. Even if you weren’t traveling, a mosaic atlas would be a great place to find mosaic inspiration and help you daydream of faraway places.
During a mosaic conference in 2005, O’Brien infected MAN founder and MosaicRocks entrepreneur Bill Buckingham with the idea and Buckingham, who had the technical skills to make it so, soon had mosaicatlas.com up and running.
Buckingham continued to maintain and update mosaicatlas.com until 2009, when his battle with prostate cancer required that he put the project on hold. At that time mosaicatlas.com contained:
- 3814 Mosaics from
- 75 Countries and
- 616 Locations submitted by
- 305 Contributors
With Buckingham’s death in 2010, Michael Welch, Buckingham’s partner in business and life, gave the website domain to O’Brien.
O’Brien says it’s time now to expand the mosaicatlas.com database:
Mosaicatlas.com is now open again for additions. Please share your mosaic discoveries with the rest of the world by uploading them to the atlas. At the very least, make sure your hometown is represented – take a photo of a local mosaic and submit it!
We think it important to note that mosaicatlas.com exists solely because two of the art form’s most ardent enthusiasts, John O’Brien and Bill Buckingham, volunteered their time, money and expertise to make it happen. It is a lovely, lovely gift to the world at large.
Thank you, John. Sweet dreams, Bill.
Nancie
To upload photos, go to www.mosaicatlas.com and click on Contribute A Photo.
