Halloween Mosaics, 2013

Just a quick couple of mosaics to celebrate the season this year. Both are glass and mirror on Wedi board. Happy Halloween!

 

Skull 26" x 18"

Witch's Hat 30" x 26"

Bluebird Of Happiness - mosaic commission

This piece was commissioned for a woman who was retiring. I thought the Bluebird of Happiness was an apt gift. Future so bright she's gotta wear shades!

-Bluebird of Happiness-

glass mosaic

16" x 24"

Summer 2013

"Dos Coyotes": my latest Southwest-inspired work

This piece began as a commission but then the clients took some time out to think about it. I believed in this design so much that I went ahead and created it anyway. 

I envisioned a cave painting, kind of rough and not fussy. I also wanted to stay away from the typical coyote art: the lone howling animal silhouetted against the full moon. However I always like to give a nod to artistic cliches so in this piece you WILL see a howling coyote and a full moon! 

The two coyote images reminds me of Janus, the god of doors, usually depicted as a two-faced image, one looking forward, the other backward. 

"Dos Coyotes"

36" x 24"

mirror, glass, tile, ceramic

April, 2013

"Unfurled" - a Mosaic Mural in Charlotte, NC

Recently I was one of many mosaic artists invited to be a part of a large mosaic mural headed by Pam Goode, who owns Ciel Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina. The design consists of 3 large art-deco-ish flowers designed by Lin Schorr, of Novi, MI. 

My piece is a petal, numbered 2G. We were asked to create our mosaics on mesh using glue. It is approximately 19" across and was specified to consist of the colors, yellow, orange, pinks with hits of purples. So here is my interpretation:

This mural was installed during the Fall of 2013. And here it is finished:

Here are the final dimensions: Flower #1 is 7'1"H x 4'5"W. Flower #2 is 7'11"H x 4'6"W. Flower #3 is 6'7"H x 5'1"W.

River of Life Mosaic Project Begins

This is the third mosaic project I have led at the Unitarian Church of Berkeley, California. These folks are getting to be real pros at this!

 The theme for the latest mural is River Of Life. I was offered a second story wall over a breezeway area that is approximately 247 square feet. As you can see in the picture, there are stairs on the right side. So I designed the "River" to begin up in the left hand corner and trail off down to the right hand lower corner. I will be working on scaffolding. Not my favorite thing but I have done it before and this scaffolding has stairs and is very sturdy.

The Co-Ministers, Barbara and Bill Hamilton-Holway, wanted to do a series of sermons on spiritual practice. Their theme was "8 Stepping Stones on the Spiritual Journey: Show Up, Practice, Grow, Serve, Go Forth, Give, Create and Love". And therefore there are 8 stones in my river design.

 A simple idea and a simple design. But I knew I wanted to challenge this congregation with a little more difficult production than last time. I wanted to make the leaf-making for the Tree of Life mural seem like arts and crafts. The total size of the design is about 110 square feet. I always design on my computer and have it printed out full size. The above picture a partial view of the art. Each section is labelled, numbered and named. For this project I cut each section out, prepared it for mosaicking on mesh and arranged each section by color. Below is a photo of the pile of pieces ready to go:

The congregation had again donated all kinds of tessarae for this project. And it was my job to divide them up by color and texture and call out which colors would go on which sections of the mural. Each box, in photo below, is labelled to correspond by color with specific  sections of the mural.

So far there there have been two workshops - each held after the Sunday service. This Sunday is the last one and I only have a few odds and ends for them to finish. 

My goal was to have people working together on these larger pieces - using only the tessarae that was right in front of them. People worked shoulder to shoulder. I wanted to control the flow and blending of the color of the "water" as it flows down and around the "rocks". 

 This is a TOTAL experiment for all of us - me included. When these pieces are cut apart and worked on separately, it is very hard to know if my idea is coming together or not. So I have to rely my organizing skills and then just move ahead on a wing and a prayer! Here are the finished pieces, cut apart, organized by section and ready to be installed:

I am also making mosaic pieces myself out of the more special tessarae, like jewelry, watches, rings, gemstones, etc.

All in all there might be about 90 sections I will be installing. It sounds daunting but I am excited to get started and to see if my vision of this mural can come true!