"Prayers Go in Sky" Mosaic by Toyoharu Kii

A leader of the cross-cultural craft resurgence, Japan-based artist Toyoharu Kii creates his intricate mosaics with hand-cut Italian marble and smalti, Venetian glass made by the same Italian family for over 400 years. Using traditional Italian techniques, Kii’s art is nonetheless modern. It is monochromatic, abstract, and highly textured and highlights the involved and technical art of mosaic making. In this evocative mosaic entitled "Prayers Go in Sky," Kii explores the affecting nature of patterns, explaining that "every piece of stone might be an alphabet, the ornaments composed by the pieces might be words, and the words composed in a larger pattern might be sentences of a prayer."