Love Letters, Mosaic classes, Trades and yet more Ranting….

Free heart. That’s what I am feeling the most right now. In anticipation of owning my home, just me, myself and I, I felt the need to start making things for me. I started with my letterbox. Separating from my husband has been a long and painful process, more than I could have imagined and perhaps it is because of this that hearts, especially winged ones, hold a lot of meaning to me. Who knows really, probably just a phase…

Still yet to finish up with that ugly boxy thing in the middle – there’s always something! I have a few other projects in mind – a large mural on my deck, some mosaics around my not-quite-a-pond-because-Australia-is-in-such-a-bad-drought! More like a hole with massive weeds in the garden… I also have a  narrow brick wall right outside my studio windows. I have this mosaic – a rug – that will hang there… It’s large – 1m x 1.2m. I have a bit of detailed work on this one, so it’s going to take a while! This is the central motif – borders to do…

Beginning next year I will be offering four mosaic classes through CIT Solutions:

1. Mosaic Basics (Interior)
2. Mosaic Basics (Exterior)
3. Tempered Glass Mosaics
4. Mosaics on Mesh

Depending on how these go, I am also hoping to offer two other classes. It is exciting for me to head on a somewhat new journey. At the end of the year, I finish up my contract working my day job and perhaps thanks to the recession I have not been successful in finding new work. It’s a worry on one level and exciting on another. There have been a lot of opportunities that I simply have not been able to explore because of the day job, so I am hoping this time will allow me to do just that. Worse comes to worse, I lose my home. There’s worse things I could lose.

I’ve also just finished (finally!) a trade with the amazing Lin Schorr. She’s busy putting together all the collaborative murals she is leading. Amazing work – you should check out her projects! The latest and final mural is the Heartistry Mural – a mosaic tapestry based on the theme of hearts with a limited colour palette of red, white and silver. The entries so far have been fantastic. I can see it’s going to be a good one.

Here is Lin’s mosaic I made for her I titled “In the Time of Queens”:

My submission for the Heartistry mural:

This is the piece that Lin has made me – “Given for Granted”

OK… so enough is enough. My dog is whingeing and complaining about going out for a walk… time to shutup!

 

Immortalising Childrens’ Art

My 5 year old was playing with sidewalk chalk last weekend on a (very large) stepping stone at the bottom of the stairs of our deck. She drew one of her loveflies, which I adore. I’ve been planning a mosaic rug on this particular substrate and after seeing her gorgeous lovefly, decided to mosaic it instead. It was supposed to be something we did together, however her response to this was “Oh, it’s OK Mum you can do it”

Can I say I love immortalising childrens’ art? What better way to do so than with mosaic!?

 

Artist Watch: Ilona Fried

I’ve always been quite fascinated with Ilona and her work and I was excited that she agreed to be a part of this series. I’m deviating from the norm this time around – here’s her story, in her own words…

Although I used to do a lot of drawing as a child, I did not consider myself an artist for most of my adult life; periodically I would dabble in some art form or another, usually ceramics and photography, while working in various professions…I won’t bore you with the list!  I was drawn to art but was also a bit apprehensive about pursuing it – in fact, about 10 years ago one of my photography instructors pulled me aside and said, “I think you really want to be an artist.”  I felt as if he had revealed some deep secret and
although I did not pursue photography as an art form his words stayed with me.

Fast forward to 2001 when I was working as a management consultant and traveling a lot. When 9/11 happened I really woke up to the fact that life is short and that I no longer wanted to be doing a stressful job that I did not enjoy. To quell my anxiety about the future I started designing jewelry and months later worked up the nerve to resign and start a jewelry design business.  I loved combining color, shape and texture in my jewelry and finding new materials to use, but after awhile I felt limited by the jewelry format as a means of self-expression.  I wanted to work with color, shape and pattern on a larger scale and to create fine art. Although I had taken a few painting classes over the years, the medium did not grab me.  Mosaics seemed like the natural next step in my creative path, allowing me to continue working with my hands and with a wide variety of tesserae – beads, ceramic, glass, stone and more.

I took my first mosaic class in 2006 in a community education program – the instructor showed us how to cut and what adhesive to use, and that was about it.  Not completely satisfied, I decided to study with the experts and in the spring of 2007 went to the Mosaic School in Ravenna, Italy.  There I was very surprised to discover that even I could cut teeny tiny pieces with a hammer and hardie!  When I returned to the US I saw a call for an all-mosaic exhibit in the Boston area, where I was living at the time.   Back then I had only made a handful of mosaics and two were accepted.  I was thrilled! One of them sold after the show ended.  That helped me take my mosaic making a bit more seriously. And having one of my pieces published in Brit Hammer’s “Mosaic: Finding Your Own Voice” inspired me to keep going, as have all the many wonderful mosaic artists I’ve met at SAMA conferences and online. I really enjoy using an ancient medium to express contemporary themes and being part of an international community of artists; I’ve traveled to two dozen countries and lived overseas a few times – in Hungary, Ecuador, and Mexico – and so I welcome any mosaic-related opportunity to get on an airplane.

About a year ago I thought about relocating to Colorado where I could pursue another passion: hiking.  The “Art Gods” were on my side – I found a terrific studio in an artist building during one of my exploratory trips to Denver.  So I packed up and moved here.  Being outdoors in stunning scenery helps me recharge and gives me ideas for mosaics. Some of my abstract pieces are inspired by mountains and how I feel when I’m at high altitude – completely at peace with myself and deeply connected to the world. Sometimes I am able to experience that same feeling when I am deeply engrossed in making a mosaic. Life doesn’t get much better than that!

Just love this portrait, everything about it is so great!

Ilona’s website is a treat: clean, organised and well presented, do check it out. It’s everything I love in a website, especially the art! If you’re on Facebook, become a fan of her work!

Finally meet Ilona -

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MAANZ 30:30 Vision Exhibition

Been a while since I even entertained the idea of exhibiting and didn’t feel at all inspired by this year’s theme, Crusty Oceania, but decided at the very last minute to give it a go… Two night’s work produced this:

Amazing how a mosaic can look so different dependent upon the lighting…

This year’s exhibition is being held in Brisbane, in conjunction with the Symposium which I am also going to. Cannot wait!! It will be a well deserved break… October can’t come soon enough.

Spring is springing here now, well beginning to at least. It’s been a long Winter… but the cherry blossoms and daffodils are a welcome distraction. In fact, so is the rain. I’ve just marked my son’s 10th b’day (!). Holy Dang Snot (a la Bamasusana)… it’s frightening to think 10  years has slipped by almost unnoticed…

I am looking forward to some upcoming work I’m planning. Mostly for me, with any luck. It’s time I start covering my house

Mosaic classes are shaping up to be a busy schedule, with some possibilities of travel too! My two favourite pastimes rolled into one?!!! Almost too good to be true!

 

Another Mural Under the Belt, Spring Class Schedule & Tempered Glass Class

I’m done, I’m really, really done!

Well, I kind of cheated and decided against doing the fish… for now. She looks complete without it and I am swimming in other mosaic ideas and wanting to get a start Am really happy with her, and though no name has come to mind, I know it will come, perhaps one day. In the meantime it is Mermaid & Octopus (!). How creative of me.

So I am releasing dates for an early Spring schedule, as I have had a number of enquiries.

• Exterior Mosaic Basics – the last weekend of August, Saturday 29 and Sunday 30
• Tempered Glass Mosaics – Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September
• Interior Mosaic Basics – Saturday 26 & Sunday 27 September

Just to give a brief explanation of the tempered glass (TG) class as most people are perhaps unaware of the term here in Australia and for the most part are unaware of its use in mosaic. I believe we call it safety glass, for the most part. It is the kind of glass most commonly used in shop windows and, here at least, occasionally used for (the expensive) shower screens. When it breaks, it crumbles instead of breaking into sharp shards hence the safety aspect to it. For a concise definition of this kind of glass check out this manufacturer’s website.  Of course, as mosaic artists, we use it broken. Great for memento mosaics, it also has other broader decorative uses too. Come check out the class and make a mosaic slightly left of centre! Pre treatment, broken tempered glass looks like this:

Post treatment, here are some examples of its use in mosaics from mosaic artists on Flickr. You can see more in the Tempered Glass Mosaics Group. (All mosaic works are copyright to the artists and like everything not to be used without express written permission. Please be inspired rather than copying).

Ilana by Susan Crocenzi

Knot a Swirl by Lin Schorr

Unrequited Love by Stacy Alexander

Diversion by Crystal Thomas

Latte Heart Valentine by Lori Desormeaux

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Artist Watch: Irit Levy

I only recently found out about Irit Levy’s art. I immediately felt a sense of shame as to how I could have possibly allowed her to fly under my radar! The first mosaic I saw of hers was the tree she made for Christine Brallier, a tree trade I’ve been hooked ever since.

For as long as she can remember, Irit always painted and drew. As a young child, she surrounded herself with all sorts of paper and different types of paints and crayons, even creating art from glass as an older child. “With no internet or TV this was my easy escape from boredom”. Irit discovered her local glazier who would give her some coloured glass offcuts which she then cut and glued, “Of course it didn’t hold long. Who knew then about different types of glues…”.

As a young adult, Levy studied painting at the art academy in Israel. She later went on to pursue Economics and worked in this field for a number of years before returning to a different art academy, again in Israel. It was here she met Doron Bar-Adon, who she claims has the most influence on her art today. It wasn’t until leaving Israel that she discovered other mediums, taking pottery very seriously. “Though I had done pottery before, it was actually the first time I dived into “brushless” art. I think that without knowing it yet then, it was at this moment that I was opened to different types of art”.

It wasn’t until mid 2006 on a visit to New York City that Irit discovered mosaic as an art form. “I stumbled, by chance, onto the Sicis showroom. The beauty of this place really hits you. After I started breathing again I knew I was going to do THAT. It took me a few more months and in April 2007 I did my first mosaic.”

“The process of making a mosaic is totally the opposite of painting, of the way I was painting. I was painting big and dirty, no plans in advance, no early sketches and very quickly. With mosaic I am going more and more into the direction of no planning. If I want to make a rhythm in mosaic I need a little planning as I can’t have that rapid brush stroke as I did while painting. I am still dirty and messy but the process is slow and I feel so good with it. I feel that I am growing into the work, that it becomes more and more a part of me.”

Irit’s claims of being impatient and impulsive means she also works on several pieces simultaneously: “… otherwise I couldn’t survive the pace of the mosaic art process.”

Irit has experienced the loss of her art throughout her life, from destroying it herself to burglary: “I am very connected to all my art. If I don’t like something, I destroy it. I don’t keep things I don’t like and I won’t have others have them… Sadly, over the years, I lost a lot of art I didn’t intend to lose. My parents destroyed all the art I did until I left home at the age of 18. I could never figure out why. The second time I lost my whole work was when I was in my mid 20’s when burglars stole all my art in my apartment.”

Irit will be exhibiting 2 of her paintings in the prestigious Biennale in Italy soon. Here is an excerpt of what one of the curators wrote about her work, which Irit feels also applies to her mosaics:

Irit Levy is a highly thought provoking artist, whose art reflects a strong existential contemplation of the world and of ordinary objects. (…. )   “Over the years my art changes as I experiment with new materials and new approaches.  What remains most similar in my art is the backgrounds. My works often show a certain emptiness. The backgrounds are large and usually have a character of their own and at times the content of the paintings seem to be floating. For me, the backgrounds are no less important than the content, in the same way that unspoken words are no less important than spoken ones.”

Cool huh?!Check out her Flickr photostream for more visual stimulation and head over to her awesome blog where she documents her work.

Love her work… just love it!

Finally, meet Irit:

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What a Week Can Do

I took the last week off from work and it’s been a productive one! I LOVE being productive… So often I’m busy and I have nothing to show for it. Hate that! I repainted some walls in my house (feature walls – what *was* I thinking?!!!), cleaned my studio and home (really!! have been on a major chuck-everything-I don’t-use frenzy. Getting rid of junk is good for the soul), caught up with friends I havn’t seen in a while, had pyjama days, went on long walks in the beautiful weather we’ve been having, almost finished with the mermaid installation and taught a mosaic class this weekend. I’m jazzed! Feeling utterly refreshed, more organised, less stressed!! Finishing things is good.

The workshop was fun. There were 4 women all up, only one with mosaic experience and she was here to learn about creating tempered glass mosaics, which she’d not done before. It was really a very pleasurable moment to experience their delight in what they made and I now have four enthusiasts to add to my {imaginary} mosaic posse {for when I need help on my future installations that are just in my head presently} Fun to watch them ogling over all the mosaics I have in my home from other artists too… I feel very blessed, for want of another word… Sharing is good.

The octopus now has 8 legs I managed to get the last three legs on the other day but let me tell you, for something I would have thought was fairly minor, it was certainly a learning experience. Firstly I did it early in the morning and it was freezing. I don’t “do” cold as it is, but when my fingers and toes are numb I start to fall apart. OK, so that’s an exaggeration but you know what I mean! I also didn’t bring any tools, extra tile, nothing. So I will from now on bring everything as if it is a huge, complex installation. Lastly, I took the mesh piece out of my car and left it outside under a carport while I drove my Dad to the doctor. I was gone no more than an hour. When I went to lift the mesh piece up to stick to the wall, most of the tile literally dropped to the ground. So, even in the slightest bit of moisture, mesh pieces aren’t going to hold (is there an emoticon with rolling eyeballs? If so, insert that here). Just cleaning up to do now: sanding and painting… *sigh*

I even managed to get my puzzle piece done for Lin Schorr… Her community project is well under way. Have a look at all the submissions so far. Looking forward to seeing Lin collating all the pieces and doing her magic waving of the wand.