I'm Emile Hofstede, call me Em, late life immigrant from Canada, soon to be New Zealand citizen. I live in the pastoral Rainbow Valley of lovely Golden Bay where I eek out a living doing various things, including making these mosaics and teaching others how to make them as well. This year I was honoured by winning The Supreme Award for my entry in the 25th Annual Bay Art of a mosaic called 'The Adult Time Out Chair'.

I'm also a writer of poetry, and have graduated with an MA in Creative Writing from Victoria Uni in Wellington. You can read one of my poems online by googling Turbine and Emile Hofstede. I have just published my first limited edition chapbook of poetry called 'The Lighthouse Keeper's Wife' as part of an Artist's Residency on Farewell Spit. In a previous life, ie. in Canada, I was an Ecologist and school teacher. I love my garden, sustainable living, my cat, my new baby goat, a good white wine, and a few other things.

Recently I particpated in an exhibit called 12 Strands: Artists at Farewell Spit where I did a poetry reading, launched my chapbook, did an installation poem and illustrated that poem with mosaics.

FYI: the word "poozler" is a uniquely kiwi word which I discovered while studying at Victoria. My Professor had it posted on her door. It means "one who collects or scavengers, one who takes from others and calls it their own", as in found poetry, as in the found objects that make up my pique assiette mosaics.