Anne-Marie Battis Mosaic Studio

Cave Canem means “Beware of Dog” in Latin. According to the Apartment Therapy website, mosaics similar to the one shown here were used to protect homes in ancient Pompeii. I first became aware of this classic mosaic during a week-long workshop in Ravenna, Italy in 2005, and soon started thinking about making my own interpretation. First, here is what the original ancient mosaic looked like. It was created using stone.

To make my version of Cave Canem, I used stained glass in various shades of brown, amber and beige, cut into many shapes. I had planned to grout this, but was swayed by people who insisted that I not. So it is one of my few ungrouted mosaics. Another unusual thing I did (for me) was to create the mosaic on an unframed piece of glass, thinking I would easily frame it later. Well, that turned out not to be so easy. After living with it frame-lessly for too long, the mosaic is now beautifully framed, thanks to Ottawa’s Patrick Gordon Framing.