--- title: Selected Works | Painted Mosaic description: Original works of art where squares of color explore perception, structure, and shifting clarity image: https://www.PAINTEDMOSAIC.com/images/preview.jpg --- [Skip to content](https://paintedmosaic.com/works#main-content) [![Painted Mosaic logo](https://paintedmosaic.com/hs-fs/hubfs/logo-paintedmosaic-600.png?width=624&height=191&name=logo-paintedmosaic-600.png) ![Painted Mosaic logo](https://paintedmosaic.com/hs-fs/hubfs/logo-paintedmosaic-600.png?width=624&height=191&name=logo-paintedmosaic-600.png)](https://paintedmosaic.com?hsLang=en) - [Home](https://paintedmosaic.com) - [Selected Works](https://paintedmosaic.com/works) - [Statement](https://paintedmosaic.com/statement) - [CV / Exhibitions](https://paintedmosaic.com/cv) - [News](https://paintedmosaic.com/news) - [Contact](https://paintedmosaic.com/contact) ### **Selected Works** Most traditional paintings assume the image exists fully formed on the canvas. The viewer simply receives it. But in my paintings, the viewer becomes an active participant in completing the work. The paintings change depending on where the body is in relation to the work. One cannot fully experience my paintings from a single fixed point. These pieces exist in the transition between fragmented abstraction and the larger resolved image, mirroring how human consciousness actually works. INHERITANCE OF SHADOW 32 x 48 inches, acrylic on panel  ©2026 A face emerges from fragments of light and darkness, familiar yet impossible to fully know. Inspired by Carl Jung’s ideas of the Shadow and the Collective Unconscious, this work explores the hidden forces that shape our identity. What we conceal, deny, or struggle to accept may be inseparable from who we are. But can we truly know ourselves without confronting what lies beneath the surface? [![Inheritance of Shadow 48x32](https://243430822.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hub/243430822/hubfs/unconscious_assumptions_md.jpg?width=1200&length=1200&name=unconscious_assumptions_md.jpg)](mailto:info@paintedmosaic.com) SHIFTING EGO 32 x 48 inches, acrylic on panel  ©2026 Shifting Ego explores the idea that our sense of identity is never completely fixed. Just like our memories, emotions, and life experiences, who we are is constantly changing and being shaped over time. The painting invites viewers to slow down and experience that process for themselves. Up close, the image breaks apart into thousands of small squares of color, making it difficult to recognize the face. As you step back, those individual pieces begin to come together, and a portrait gradually appears. Your movement is an important part of the work. The painting changes as you move, reminding us that understanding often comes with distance. Sometimes we're too close to a situation, or even to ourselves, to see the bigger picture. Only by stepping back do patterns begin to emerge. In that way, Shifting Ego isn't just a portrait of a person. It's a reflection on how we see, how we make sense of the world, and how our identity is built from many experiences that slowly come together into something we recognize as ourselves. **BEST IN SHOW** 10th Annual National Juried Exhibition  Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art, Wausau, WI [![shifting-ego-acrylic-48x32-2026](https://243430822.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hub/243430822/hubfs/cacek-02-shifting-ego-acrylic-48x32-2026.jpg?width=1200&length=1200&name=cacek-02-shifting-ego-acrylic-48x32-2026.jpg)](mailto:info@paintedmosaic.com) MULTIPLICITY OF SELF 32 x 48 inches, acrylic on panel  ©2026 This piece explores identity as something fluid and constructed rather than singular or fixed. From a distance, the work resolves into a cohesive image, but up close it breaks apart into countless small painted fragments, challenging the viewer’s perception of wholeness. This shift between clarity and dissolution reflects the idea that the self is assembled through shifting perceptions, memories, and internal states. The piece ultimately positions identity as something actively formed by the viewer’s experience of looking rather than a stable visual truth. **BEST IN SHOW** 79th Annual Juried Art Show Gilpin County Arts Association, Central City, CO **FIRST PLACE** Confluence of Art Annual Exhibit Pablo Center at the Confluence, Eau Claire, WI [![Multiplicity of Self - SOLD](https://243430822.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hub/243430822/hubfs/multiplicity_SOLD.jpg?width=1200&length=1200&name=multiplicity_SOLD.jpg)](mailto:info@paintedmosaic.com) WARRIOR ARCHETYPE: GUERRERA 36 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas   ©2025 This explores the warrior archetype through a distinctly youthful presence, where strength and vulnerability coexist within the same figure. From a distance, the image resolves into a determined young warrior, but up close it breaks into layered fragments that resist any singular reading of identity or experience. The emphasis on youth adds a tension between formation and becoming, suggesting the archetype is still being shaped by memory, expectation, and inherited narratives. In this way, the work frames the warrior not as a fixed ideal, but as an evolving identity assembled through perception and lived possibility. **FIRST PLACE** Acrylic International Biennial Juried Exhibition  Kenosha Public Museum, Kenosha, WI [![Faces of War: Guerrera](https://243430822.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hub/243430822/hubfs/Guerrera.jpg?width=1200&length=1200&name=Guerrera.jpg)](mailto:info@paintedmosaic.com) WARRIOR ARCHETYPE: SHUJAA 36 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas  ©2025 Presenting the figure of the warrior not as a singular cultural symbol, but as a layered archetype shaped by collective memory and interpretation. From a distance, the image resolves into a recognizable human presence charged with strength and resolve, while up close it dissolves into countless painted fragments that destabilize any fixed identity. This shifting structure suggests that the “warrior” is both personal and universal, constructed through overlapping histories, mythologies, and psychological projections. The work reframes archetype as something actively assembled by perception rather than inherited as a fixed image. [![Faces of War: Shujaa](https://243430822.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hub/243430822/hubfs/Shujaa.jpg?width=1200&length=1200&name=Shujaa.jpg)](mailto:info@paintedmosaic.com) ![Shujaa](https://paintedmosaic.com/hubfs/Shujaa.jpg) ![Guerrera](https://paintedmosaic.com/hubfs/Guerrera.jpg) ![Eishes\_Chayil](https://paintedmosaic.com/hubfs/Eishes_Chayil.jpg) ![Savaşçı](https://paintedmosaic.com/hubfs/Sava%C5%9F%C3%A7%C4%B1.jpg) WARRIOR ARCHETYPE: SAVASCI 36 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas  ©2025 Fragmentation interrupts the unity of the face, preventing a seamless perceptual reading. The viewer is required to negotiate between recognition and breakdown, holding both simultaneously. The work sustains this tension rather than resolving it. [![Faces of War: Savaşçı](https://243430822.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hub/243430822/hubfs/Sava%C5%9F%C3%A7%C4%B1-1.jpg?width=1200&length=1200&name=Sava%C5%9F%C3%A7%C4%B1-1.jpg)](mailto:info@paintedmosaic.com) WARRIOR ARCHETYPE: AKICHITA 36 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas  ©2025 The Lakota warrior emerges from fractured planes of color as both individual and ancestral presence. The face appears weathered by memory, carrying the psychological weight of conflict while maintaining an unbroken sense of dignity. In Jungian terms, the warrior archetype here transcends aggression; it becomes a symbol of sacred duty, courage, and alignment with collective identity. The Akíčhita was historically expected to embody restraint, honor, and sacrifice in service of the tribe, and those qualities permeate the painting’s solemn intensity. [![Faces of War: Akíčhita](https://243430822.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hub/243430822/hubfs/Ak%C3%AD%C4%8Dhita.jpg?width=1200&length=1200&name=Ak%C3%AD%C4%8Dhita.jpg)](mailto:info@paintedmosaic.com) WARRIOR ARCHETYPE: EISHES CHAYIL 36 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas  ©2025 This portrait channels the warrior archetype through the lens of Jewish historical memory, where survival and spiritual endurance become inseparable. The fractured mosaic surface evokes generations shaped by exile, persecution, resistance, and resilience—from ancient Judean conflicts to the diasporic struggles that defined Jewish identity across centuries. The face appears simultaneously wounded and unwavering, suggesting a psyche forged not only through battle, but through remembrance. [![Faces of War: Eishes Chayil](https://243430822.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hub/243430822/hubfs/Eishes_Chayil_4.1MB.jpeg?width=1200&length=1200&name=Eishes_Chayil_4.1MB.jpeg)](mailto:info@paintedmosaic.com) ARCHITECTURES OF MEMORY: GOTHAM 48 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas  ©2024 This painting engages the city as both structure and psychological residue, where urban space becomes a map of memory rather than a literal place. From a distance, the work resolves into a recognizable architectural or cityscape image, but up close it fractures into thousands of discrete painted units that disrupt fixed reading. This oscillation between coherence and fragmentation suggests that “Gotham” is not a single city but a layered accumulation of impressions, histories, and perceptions. The piece positions architecture as something remembered and reconstructed by the viewer, rather than passively observed. **THIRD PLACE** Colorful Symphony Rhode Island Watercolor Society, Pawtucket, RI **HONORABLE MENTION RepreSENSATIONAL Heartland Art Center, St. Louis, MO** [![cacek-gotham](https://243430822.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hub/243430822/hubfs/cacek-gotham.jpg?width=1200&length=1200&name=cacek-gotham.jpg)](mailto:info@paintedmosaic.com) Selected for the **78th Midwestern Biennial** at the Rockford Art Museum URBAN RESOLUTION 30 x 30 inches, acrylic on canvas  ©2023 The composition compresses architectural space into a fragmented visual field that resists immediate spatial logic. Structure is not depicted but constructed through the viewer’s perceptual engagement, shifting from disorientation to coherence with distance. The work frames the built environment as an active cognitive assembly rather than a stable, objective reality. [![Urban Resolution](https://243430822.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hub/243430822/hubfs/view-from-the-eastside.jpg?width=1200&length=1200&name=view-from-the-eastside.jpg)](mailto:info@paintedmosaic.com) ARTIFICIAL BRILLIANCE 36 x 36 inches, acrylic on canvas  ©2023 The image suggests a mode of perception shaped by constructed or mediated systems. Fragmentation feels less organic, emphasizing assembly over observation. Clarity appears as something engineered rather than naturally perceived. [![lightpollution](https://243430822.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na2.net/hub/243430822/hubfs/lightpollution.jpg?width=1200&length=1200&name=lightpollution.jpg)](mailto:info@paintedmosaic.com) [![logo-paintedmosaic-White-400](https://paintedmosaic.com/hubfs/logo-paintedmosaic-White-400.png)](https://paintedmosaic.com?hsLang=en) © 2026 Painted Mosaic, LLC