Artwork offers views of real life, and real life happens At the Table.  This board is rich and full of its subjects eating, drinking, playing, conducting business, serving, communicating, and making music.

Perhaps it is because we have such a large family that I find myself drawn to artistic portrayals of activities around a table.  There is always eating, but the table brings us together for other reasons as well.  At the Table explores the activities that occur there, all the while informing and educating us about how these activities were accomplished years ago, adding historical enrichment to the ordinary details of life.

I always consider my mosaics visually as a ‘finished product’.  They piece together one by one or small group by small group, and when the board is complete, I see it as a sum of its parts.  In this board though I do have a favorite painting. . .  

Along the upper border, slightly left of center, is a picture of four children having fun around the family table in Jan Steen’s ‘The Dancing Lesson’.  The oldest boy holds up the front paws of a young cat as if it were performing a jig.  A girl I presume to be his sister plays a tune, and their dog barks with excitement and protestation.  One brother seems to be offering some item as his part in the fun, but my most favorite is the youngest child who simply cannot contain him/herself with laughter at the wit of the older siblings.  I really don’t see an animal getting hurt here, but more that the cat is mildly tolerating the rambunctious children (and will of course soon put an end to this game any way as cats are well built to do).  Above the children’s noisy play is an older man who sticks his head into the scene no doubt telling the kids to “Pipe down!”  This is so real to me, and though it is centuries before my own crew came into being, I know my children have played out scenes that remind me of this one around our own table with just small details adjusted.

Enjoy At the Table on a wall in your own history-making eating area and enfold your family into the groupings featured on this board.