Are you using geometric relationships, or are you doing what looks aesthetically good?

Scott Douglas Jacobsen asks Rick Rosner about restoring a large crucifixion mosaic bought at auction. Rosner explains it is a full mosaic, heavy and damaged, rebuilt over two and a half years by replacing missing tesserae. He describes sourcing discounted Orsoni Venetian gold glass, made by sandwiching gold leaf between glass layers, and using mixed gold tones to add playful rays to the disk halos of Jesus, Mary, and John. He then pivots to HBO’s Industry, praising its research, critiquing shock-for-shock writing, and outlining a fintech rebrand, fabricated revenue, and a grim blackmail twist. It doubles as sharp cultural commentary.

Rick Rosner: I’m adding rays to the halos on my Jesus mosaic.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Is it micro-mosaic?

Rosner: No, it’s a full mosaic—about 384 square inches. I’ve been restoring it slowly for about 2.5 years, replacing a few pieces at a time. I bought it cheaply at auction for $120: a large mosaic of Jesus on the cross, flanked by Mary and John. That crucifixion motif is fairly common in Christian art. It was cheap because many pieces were missing.

It weighs around 20 pounds. It tore out of the wall where it had been hanging, fell, and knocked off many pieces. I’ve been replacing them. It’s too heavy to hang now, so it sits on the floor of my office. I see it every day, and I end up thinking about Jesus.

I’m not a Christian, and I do not believe in his divinity. But I think about Jesus a lot—especially in this long political moment in the United States, where many self-identified Christians have lined up behind Donald Trump. In my view, Trump is a terrible person, and many Christian leaders who support him are also terrible people. In my view, they have pulled tens of millions of followers into a counterfeit “Christian” posture while treating immigrants brutally and still calling themselves Christians.

I’ve now restored the mosaic and replaced the missing pieces. In the past few days, I bought some Orsoni glass mosaic. Orsoni is a Venetian mosaic-glass furnace founded in 1888, based in Venice’s historic center (not on Murano). Murano, though, is famous for its centuries-old art glassmaking.

I bought the gold glass cheaply because the neatly cut little squares are expensive. I found a deal on scrap gold glass—odd-shaped offcuts and pieces that didn’t break the way someone wanted when cutting.

The gold glass is made by sandwiching gold leaf between layers of glass, with a thin protective glass layer over the gold. You see this in icon mosaics, especially in Eastern Orthodox traditions—mosaics where Mary holds the infant Jesus, with large halos and gold backgrounds.

In the mosaic I’m restoring, Mary, John, and Jesus all have disk halos made of gold glass. I studied the history of halos because the modern idea often portrays them as a ring of light rather than a full disk. Since I had gold glass, I decided to add rays coming off the three halos to make it more visually playful.

Jacobsen: Are you using geometric relationships, or are you doing what looks aesthetically good?

Rosner: I’m doing what looks aesthetically good. It’s already a bit much. The mosaic is slightly cartoony—maybe 80% realistic and 20% simplified—so there’s room for stylized rays, but I did not want to go too far.

Jacobsen: What colour are the rays?

Rosner: The rays are varying shades of gold. Some gold mosaic glass is made with 24-karat gold leaf, while others use slightly different gold alloys so that the tones can vary. You can get cooler, silvery golds and warmer, coppery golds. A mix looks better.

Jacobsen: Anything else you want to talk about?

Rosner: Yes. Carole and I have been watching Industry on HBO. It’s one of those modern shows that leans into perversity. You see this in some “second-tier” prestige shows, where writers seem to choose the most twisted plot option available. In shows like Billions, it can feel like shock and filth are substitutes for strong plotting and writing.

I recognize that impulse in myself sometimes: when I’m not confident in my writing, I can reach for perversity and shock value to hold attention. Industry feels different. It goes dark, but it still seems well-written and well-researched, and it explores ugliness because it sells and because some of it reflects real-world behaviour worth examining.

In this season, a sketchy online payments company—Tender—is trying to move beyond its earlier associations (including processing payments for subscription content such as OnlyFans) and rebrand as a legitimate, all-in-one financial services company aimed at Gen Z. The core valuation story starts to unravel. It looks like much of the revenue propping up their numbers is fabricated. It becomes a house-of-cards situation, with money and transactions that may not be real.

There are two threads: the Tender team, and another group betting against Tender by shorting its stock (shorting is a way to profit if a company’s share price falls). The shorting team digs into the books and argues that multiple large transactions and acquisitions are built on fake revenue.

Then it gets even darker: the show depicts Tender using sexual leverage and blackmail tactics through staged encounters. One major twist involves compromising material used to destroy a central character, including a reveal involving an underage victim—an extremely disturbing turn for a mainstream show.

Rick Rosner is an accomplished television writer with credits on shows like Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Crank Yankers, and The Man Show. Over his career, he has earned multiple Writers Guild Award nominations—winning one—and an Emmy nomination. Rosner holds a broad academic background, graduating with the equivalent of eight majors. Based in Los Angeles, he continues to write and develop ideas while spending time with his wife, daughter, and two dogs.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen is the publisher of In-Sight Publishing (ISBN: 978-1-0692343) and Editor-in-Chief of In-Sight: Interviews (ISSN: 2369-6885). He writes for The Good Men Project, International Policy Digest (ISSN: 2332–9416), The Humanist (Print: ISSN 0018-7399; Online: ISSN 2163-3576), Basic Income Earth Network (UK Registered Charity 1177066), A Further Inquiry, and other media. He is a member in good standing of numerous media organizations.

Photo by Serena Naclerio on Unsplash

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