MOULTRIE — Local mosaic artist Karen Sasine was recently honored internationally for her mosaic, “Asian Garden,” which will be on display at the Colquitt County Arts Center during the month of February.

“The ‘Asian Garden’ is just one of those pieces I put my heart and soul into and it worked. It absolutely worked,” said Sasine.

Sasine’s belongs to a group called mosaicartists.org, which includes about 4,000 artists around the world, and every month they have a challenge in which the artists submit a picture of one of their mosaic pieces online. Out of these submissions, the group chooses a Mosaic of the Year and Sasine said she was told “Asian Garden” won by a landslide.

“It’s really been the most incredible year for me artistically,” she said.

Sasine also submitted this piece to the Mosaic Arts International show and it, along with 64 other pieces, was chosen out of 400 entries to be included in this year’s show in Miami, Fla., in April. The show includes participation from seven countries. She said she this was the third year that she had submitted a piece but she said she had really felt “Asian Garden” had a chance at being accepted. She said the color palette, the composition, and the depth of the piece is what “makes it work.”

“To get into this show, you have to have a piece that stands on its own. Technically and artistically perfect. They are looking for perfection,” she said.

The exhibition in Miami will be on display for a month and the pieces will be judged prior to the exhibition. Sasine said she has a chance of winning a cash prize. The exhibit is in conjunction with the Society of American Mosaic Artists (SAMA) conference.

“Winning Mosaic of the Year was recognition by my peers. Getting into the Mosaic Arts International show is recognition as a mosaic artist as being one of the best — worldwide,” said Sasine.

“Asian Garden” is a 20-by-30 inch mosaic piece made of Perdomo Mexican Smalti, Orsoni Italian Smalti, 24 carat gold Orsoni Smalti, and marble. Sasine said that Smalti was the highest quality glass mosaic tile that could be used because it had a dimension to it that other glass mosaic does not. According to Wikipedia, Smalti is made by mixing molten glass with metal oxides for color; the mixture is poured into flat slabs that are cooled and broken into individual opaque pieces. Smalti was used to create the mosaics in Byzantine churches in Italy.

Sasine created the piece after she won a trip to attend a two-week Orsoni Mosaic Master Class in Venice, Italy, at last year’s SAMA conference.

“Winning the trip to Italy gave me the inspiration to do a Smalti piece,” she said.

She said she did the piece before she went to Italy because she wanted to see where her abilities lay before she went. This was the first piece in Smalti that she had ever done and, to date, is the largest piece of Smalti work she has created. She said she did a lot of research on what kinds of bushes and trees would be seen in an Asian garden before she started the project. She found pictures on the Internet and also used her visual recall of her visit to San Francisco, Calif.

“This is an interpretation of my visit to the San Francisco garden. It was a phenomenal place and seemed like a good theme to do,” she said.

She said it took her about two to three months to complete, working continuously and meticulously cutting each piece of glass to fit. She reiterated that she put “her heart and soul” into it.

“I’m gonna miss it when it goes,” she said wistfully.