Robert Roher, Glass Mosaicist:

Before I found mosaics, I had made art with ceramics and photography. It was a time when other artists were plunging into Photoshop and, while I explored those possibilities, I didn't want to sit at a computer. I wanted something more tactile. Returning to New York from a photography workshop in Provence in 2002, I noticed a mosaic in a store window, a classical image done in gray and black pieces of stone. I was intrigued, but rather than working with stone, I wanted to use the strong colors that I favored in photography. That led me to stained glass. Now I capture images with my camera that I interpret in mosaics. In every panel, I face a creative challenge in using the pieces of glass before me, without the ability of a darkroom to burn and dodge, or of Photoshop to tweak color, or of paint to mix and blend pigment. But the goal is the same: to create an image that evokes reality, where the colors are harmonious and objects can take shape using a medium that resists shaping.