Making Life my Bitch

You know how I said I was gonna grab life by the metaphorical balls?! Yep. I’m doing it and so far it appears I’m doing it right!! I decided earlier this year that I was going to choose different in life. Well not really different. Just to not be afraid of certain things and outcomes that may never be. Choose to live fearlessly perhaps, which was more my natural state when I was young. We condescend the young and tell them they are naive. I don’t know that it is a wise thing to be condescending! The battles of life have left their mark, to be sure, but I am determined to not allow them to rule my life. After having come out of a marriage that can only be characterised as abusive, I fell into a funk that I just didn’t know how to get out of. Looking back on it, hindsight being what it is, there were times I didn’t even know I was in a funk! I would often see these annoying quotes: choose happiness bla bla. It’s not that simple people. Grief is a necessary emotion. You have to go through all of it to be able to get to the other side and to the point of deciding that enough is  enough and that you are able to see it (whatever ‘it’ is for any given person) as a choice (which, mind you, is often not even a conscious decision at the time). Either that or you make the same mistakes all over again, which I will NOT do. Well, after 5 odd years I think I’ve finally arrived at that place and am thinking I might just make it my home!! One day at a time though. Trusting in people again does not come naturally anymore as it turns out. Humans can be so cruel and there are many a day when I wonder at human nature. But I’m still here and I have to live in Life. I think I finally understand that with all of my being (brain AND heart AND everything in between) and once again can see that there is such beauty lying there too.

A few years back I discovered some street art that I instantly fell in love with. In fact, the way I described my reaction at the time was “totally, completely and utterly besotted!!!”. I’ll admit that I don’t always see art that makes me feel. Truly feel something, anything! Understand, too,that Canberra has a very singular idea of art and public art in particular. After having lived OS for a number of years, in particular San Francisco, and having resided in the Mission District where (great) art was on every surface pretty much, returning to Canberra was a real kick in the gut in the sense of colour, fun, amazing, wonder was concerned. Anyway, I would come across this artist’s work and get excited. Like, excited-excited, butterflies excited. I always thought how cool it would be to collaborate – since their designs seemed mosaic friendly but pretty much left it there and enjoyed the moments when I discovered another piece out in the world, getting cranky when they’d get “cleaned” up and thinking how cool and how pure (for wont of a better word) that street art can be. Sometimes it’s such a gift and the artists are not asking for anything in return. As a series of fortunate events, I happened upon their work on the interwebs earlier this year, discovering at the very least the name they went by. Abyss .607. Hmm… I like it… Gimme more… FB page and yesss… An in! It took me almost a month to work up the courage to email the artist and ask if they might be interested in a potential commission where I would then mosaic their artwork. It’s a BIG ask and a lot of trust to allow someone else (you don’t know) interpret your work in another medium… In all honesty I probs would have said no (I was expecting a no) but he said YES! I picked up the work the other day… Am just a li’l excited (read: frikkin’ over the moon baby!). It’s massive. WAY bigger than I expected!!

Sometimes it really pays off to put yourself out there.

And now I have a responsibility to do another artist’s work justice. It’s pressure. I hope I don’t disappoint! He mentioned he’d like to come over once completed and spray some finishing touches on the tile. Does it get better than this? Nope. Not at the moment.

All of a sudden the Universe is conspiring to get my creative juices going again. Yes. When I am not being my cynical self, I’m some crazed new age freak (not really) who believes that there is a reason for everything (really)!! I’ve been very conscious of just how uncreative I’ve felt these last few years. Where once I was quite prolific in the work I put out, I suddenly lost my mojo. It is an incredibly disturbing thing to happen. But it’s back it seems and I do intend on having a love affair with it. I have the mural with Abyss to fabricate, as well as another mural that I sketched out one afternoon while in hospital with my Dad. Designs never come so easy. Designs are often my achilles heel – they take me weeks, months… It’s ready to go. Ready. to. Go!!! Not only that but the finishing touches is about to be applied to another mural – yet another collaboration with my gorgeous sister of one of her beautiful mermaids. She’s adding fish and an octopus to it. Then it needs to be scaled and enlarged and all the other stuff that goes into fabricating murals. Three murals yeah? And to top it all off? I have an assistant! Not to mention all the sculptural stuff I wanna try out. My house is gonna be the best on the block yo!

Winning at life biyatches!

Well. Sort of. I need to get busy and actually start. Ha!

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Tiki Tom

How lucky is the mural by Laurel True at Tiki Tom’s in Oakland CA? It appears to have survived the blaze that burnt down the restaurant. Hope they manage to save the mural in the clean up/rebuild.

Artist in Residence at IMA!!

After the conference it was onwards and upwards to the Bay Area – my former stomping ground and one place I keep going back to. I always feel like I come home when I go there…

Laurel True was kind enough to let me do a stint at Artist in Residence at the Institute of Mosaic Art (IMA).  When I inquired about perhaps helping out with something at IMA, I wasn’t expecting an ‘Artist in Residence’ tag at all, but was more than happy with it 🙂  Laurel had mentioned the kitchen backsplash which piqued my interest,  amongst many other possibilities. I was worried that time pressures and other personal pressures may prevent me from finishing it, so I left myself open to anything. I had mentioned it to Susan Crocenzi – looking to collaborate with her cuz I thought it would just be fun! When I arrived and went over, I thought to myself the backsplash would be the perfect thing to do. Yet again proof of working well under pressure 😉 With no design ideas in mind and no inkling, at that time, that I would be surrounded by fellow artists a la  Linda Martin, Kelley Knickerbocker and Rachel Rodi [who are waaaay awesome!!! ;)] to help finish the installation I set about doing the kitchen backsplash direct (knowing that I had 4, maybe 5 days to get it all done)! – simply because I had no design in mind and worked it as I went. I knew that if I sat down and drew stuff out, it would not get finished.

Susan came in on the last day (all the way from Nevada City!) and added her tempered glass and polymer clay accents, all of which I think make the installation! Some of the polymer clay pieces she had made many moons ago and they just fit with the theme – colours, shapes… it was just perfect! Like it was meant to be somethin’… We finished just in the knick o’ time.

I have to say designing this was a little scary… 1 because I had no ideas, 2 because it’s in Laurel’s business, 3 because that business is IMA and 4 because how many mosaic artists go through there every year?! Laurel was way cool about it though and just let me go for it. I very much appreciate her support. I figured that she wouldn’t mind a walk on the wild side and wouldn’t necessarily need/want/prefer a traditional backsplash, so I went with something else and I think it fits with the spirit of IMA…

By day 2 I was starting to get just a tad panicked that I wasn’t going to be able to finish what I’d started! I was leaving to go back to Australia and not quite like I could pop in at any time… Mentioned as much on either Flickr or Facebook (don’t remember which) and Lovely Linda came to the rescue!!! She drove up from Santa Cruz to help me on the Saturday. How cool is that?! Kelley was there, having driven down from Seattle the day before, hanging her art for a show she’s got going on (go see it if you are close by – her work is amazing!!!!). We roped her in at some point in the day and when Rachel finished teaching her class… well we just had that glint in our eyes and she couldn’t say no 😉

Last day of installation and the name for the piece hadn’t even cropped up… Susan and I decided to call it Reach.

Have I mentioned how FUN it is working with fellow mosaic artists?!!! Spreadin’ the love is good in numbers!

Me and Linda Martin

The Gang – Kelley Knickerbocker, Rachel Rodi and Linda Martin

The LOVELY Susan Crocenzi

Photo by Gib Robinson

Reach, *glowing*

Detail of Susan’s work

Photo by Gib Robinson

Photo by Gib Robinson

SAMA San Diego 2009

I am back. Back from near 3 weeks of mosaic mayhem! I had a brilliant time – there’s nothing quite like immersing oneself in something you love, are passionate about and couldn’t live without. Needless to say the highlight was meeting all my e-friends, who I now can certainly count as real-life friends 😉 It was kinda weird though because it didn’t feel like it was the first time we actually met, proof perhaps that making friends online and getting to know them without ever so much as hearing their voices or feeling their demeanour in person is, in fact, possible.

SAMA San Diego was a blast – to use an Americanism. I participated in 4 workshops – one of which was CRAP!!! And yes I did say so in the feedback. It was a relief to hear that most other people I met who did the same workshop had similar complaints. However, the other 3 were really great. I would have to say the workshop I benefited from the most was Sue Gianotti‘s Mosaic Design Basics. Basic principles I was not aware of, some that I even used in my work without knowing that I did… I am now a value-ho!

I am also now convinced that there is no business workshop that would do me any good. I think it must be a really difficult thing to teach (?) even arbitrary perhaps, but I havn’t done any kind of business class that has imparted any kind of useful information. Well I havn’t done Laurel True‘s class and I have heard it is a good one… I did do George Fishman‘s class, however. I must say that was useful – it was essentially dissecting the process of one of his murals. But it didn’t set about how to get that mural in the first place, if you know what I mean. I enjoyed going through the step by step of how the mural was made though, very interesting. In fact that class reminded me just how open I keep myself to my clients, in as much as I don’t cover myself with a contract ever… I know. The evil twin in me keeps whispering in my ear, waiting for the “I told you so” moment. Something I will change as of this year. I have been lucky enough to be supported by some wonderful fellow artists (Marian Shapiro being one) and am truly grateful…

I also did the 3D workshop with Sherri Warner Hunter and actually made something that looks like what it was supposed to (a snail!). I was quite chuffed 😉 That was a really fun day.

Not sure what I would say the highlight of the conference was – it was all rather overwhelming… probably meeting fellow artists. Being surrounded by like-minded people. The only artist I didn’t introduce myself to (I will say embarrassingly enough!!!) was Laurel Skye. I was just a little too starstruck… 😉 She is, after all, the sole reason why I continued to mosaic…

The Mini Salon was a great experience too. The work was amazing – all of it. Interesting to see all these pieces that I had seen online, in person. I’m happy to say that I sold my piece. It now resides in Tahiti 🙂 That was nice actually. Marian Shapiro was the one that convinced me to enter something in all in the name of trying to recoup costs of getting there. That sale and that of my guitar, Swan Song, certainly helped and made it all worthwhile!!

My new fave mosaic artist: Jeannie Houston Antes. Check out her work. Of course, so much better in person… but I love her style + she’s really cool. Am hoping to write her up on this blog some time soon – so stay tuned!

For more pics, please visit my flickr site and also Crystal’s flickr set – she was quite the photographer at this event and took some great pics! These are just a few of my faves…

Flickr Fest – love this photo!!!

Me & Crystal Thomas in Sherri’s 3D class

Photo by Carol Shelkin

Photo by Crystal Thomas

Photo by Crystal Thomas

The Exhibition itself was located at the Museum of Man. Great setting, but I found it difficult to get through with 400 other people around – let’s just say I’m one of those annoying people who don’t do particularly well in crowds and much prefers to go at my own pace and let it all soak in… Nevertheless it was just awe-insiring to see a collection of amazing mosaics in the one space. My top 5 (in no particular order):

Waves Adrift by Sophie Drouin

Dreamer by Carole Choucair Oueijan

Stinging Colours by Roxana Nizza

Paradigm Shift by Brian Felix

The Birth of Light by Bill Buckingham

In a Village by Carol Shelkin

OK so top 6! Though my top 5 should be a top 10, top 15… so many pieces I would have in my home 😉 More pics can be found in my Flickr set.

Some of my faves from the Mini Salon:

Viscus Stimulus by Karen Ami

Voices in My Head by Jeannie Houston Antes

Venezia by Ulrike Martinez

The conference, for me, wrapped up with a tour of Niki de Saint Phalle‘s Queen Califia’s Magic Circle. Let it be known that I was speechless. It was really fantastic and a great end to the 5 days (daze?) of mosaic mania. Bring in capital punishment for those effwits who find the need to vandal the place, I say 😉 More on flickr…

With the beautiful Susan Crocenzi

Susan Crocenzi and Lynn Adamo

All in all, a great time!! Don’t know about doing this again next year, but I highly recommend it to those of you who can go. Next year it is in Chicago, brrrr… I think I will opt for my trip to Spain, Italy and maybe Turkey & Morocco. I think I need to go to all these other places I want to visit versus visiting the US over and over 😉

Any takers?

Breathing Life into Inanimate Objects

I must say I love doing it!

My studio has been a bustling place to be these last couple of days. I taught a friend how to make a mosaic (she is, for the record, totally besotted and has already scoped out her studio in her garage!!! Yay) and then a little 4 year old came over (one of my daughter’s womb buddies) and made a stepping stone. She rocked that mosaic!!! We were done in an hour and she was asking me what we could do next 😉 My kinda gal!

I finished, 100%, my commission-du-jour, Sir Elton. He’s not only grouted, but signed, sealed and on his way to be delivered. It’s rather exciting and then not so… The departure is all too sudden. I know, daft really. After all they are just inanimate objects. Why should I get so attached?! I never feel like I do until I have to say goodbye. So Sir Elton is packed in a box, surrounded by a some kind of foam, that was liquid so it could dry into his shape and mould him all the way to Seoul, Korea. He’s the one on the right 😉

Called on the paparazzi for these pictures (by my sister Lee Grant). After all who knows when we’ll get Liberace and Sir Elton together again?! 😉 I have plans for perhaps extending the series even further 🙂 Why not?! I might as well now and from this day forth be known as “The Chicken Lady”. {teehee…} I’m very pleased how he turned out. Let’s all hope that he makes it over in one piece…

Next on my hit list is the next commission – a big fish, another 3D sculpture. I’m excited about this one. Stuck a few tiles on him today and he’s come alive already. It’s exciting to watch. His tail is broken so I’m going to have to make and attach a new section on. I’m thinking mesh + thinset + *maybe* (if it’s necessary) some polystyrene… A bit of Darjit would be useful! Still need to follow up on that workshop. It’d be fun to do. There was talk about a workshop being held down my way… I have considered organising a one here, maybe even at the Art School at Uni. I think there’d be plenty of people interested. Just another thing to do really and fairly low on my list of priorities, I might add. Almost did one while I was over in San Francisco, as there was a course right after the mural workshop I participated in at IMA. Oh if I didn’t have a life and all I had to do was travel, make mosaics and meet lotsa cool, talented artists! 🙂 Hmmm… actually now that I see it in writing, it’s what I do, just part time! That makes me feel better, I think… I think I just implied to myself that I have no life. Hmmm, time to get some sleep I think. 😉

So on that note: Voila! Here is one of my WIPs (I’m actually working on 4 different projects right now, that’s a little psychotic is it not?!). I think he’s going to be loads of fun!

San Francisco’s Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church Mosaics

Heading back to the Bay Area, an old friend I hadn’t seen in almost 10 years got news of some mosaics being installed in a church. Not one to miss anything mosaic-related, we went over to the church to see what we could and Bob Andrews, the artist happened to be there. Anyway, we introduced ourselves and I told him I made mosaics and was interested in having a quick look-see. He was more than happy to let us have a look around and talk a bit about his career. The church was closed, well and truly so it was really lovely that he let us in. Firstly you need to understand that the man is 83 years old and has been working on this particular church for 60 years, if memory serves me well. He looked no more than 60, truly! The dome measured 60 feet in diameter. IT WAS MASSIVE. {Oops, sorry hit the caps button, but actually it’s appropriate…} This particular install was set to take 3 weeks. We got there half way through the third week and they were just finishing up. He seemed to think about another few days and the install would be done. It was the dome that they were installing – a mosaic of Jesus Christ. The mosaic had taken 2 years to make and was made of smalti – lots of it and alot of gold! He did actually tell me the exact number of tesserae and I forget now. I thought it was amazing in and of itself that he would even count!? How does anyone do that? They can’t possibly count as they go can they? Really is it possible, or is it an estimate?!

Nevertheless, the entire project was made in the reverse indirect. I was in awe! Just the sheer size of it and then having to work it upside down and back to front… Really I’m not one for religious icons but this was simply amazing. Bob made the mosaic with his son in his studio in Italy. They had a three person team come out (from Italy) – 2 men and a woman – for the installation and Bob’s son took the paper off and scrubbed it all down… Alot of work!

He let us climb the scaffolding, 100 ft into the air, on really rickety stairs… I was freakin’ out! Going up is worse than coming done. I never used to be afraid of heights until I had kids. It really does change a woman! 😉 But it was well worth the effort. I’ll never see it that close again and it was stunning, simply stunning!

Andrews has made mosaics in 21 different churches throughout the US. As a Greek Orthodox himself, I got the sense that most of the mosaics were in Greek Orthodox churches… When I asked him how he got started in this medium, he said he came out of Art School having done ceramics and pottery etc… Someone at a University (that he ended up becoming the artist in residence for) suggested that he make a mosaic and that’s really how it all started. Then he mentioned that his church in his hometown had burnt down and the priest asked him to make a mosaic after the rebuild. It all rose from the ashes, as they say…

He was such a lovely man, incredibly fit – he said he works out 3 times a week. That’s 3 more times than me 🙂 and so modest about his work. He was really very humble.

Please understand my photos do not do any of this work justice – you just cannot imagine the magnitude and scale of what these mosaics are like! I also couldn’t choose which photos to put in, so most of them are here! You might just have to go and visit it…

And here he is 🙂

Making Mosaics and Lasting Friendships

Well as most of you probably are aware I have become quite friendly with Susan Crocenzi having made a website for her and in return I lovingly welcomed Crossroads into my life. When I was in the USandA I went and visited her in her neck of the woods. How could I not?! The drive up was lovely and I was cursing myself for not hiring the GPS for the extra $14.99 per day cos I kept getting lost?! Mapquest had me all over the place, lol! Finally made it though and she was busy teaching Donna, aka CaDonna, who came to know of Susan through another online forum… They’d been making a polymer clay and tempered glass piece which they’d just finished as I turned up 🙂

Now I will admit to being a tad worried that we might not get along, that it would all be a stereotypical weird online friendship thing and it SOOOO was not. I felt like we’d known each other for a long time. Phew, cos she opened her home to me and was so very hospitable and I stayed for the whole weekend, even got to meet her family. I’m sure you felt the same, a little… huh, Susan?! 🙂

We had planned on trying to go for a hike, there was even mention of going kayaking on the Yuba, which sounded wonderful! There just wasn’t going to be any time though (I was only there for 2.5 days) and I do plan to take her up on the offer another time. Some of the pics I’ve seen of her beautiful surrounds was just mind blowing. Northern CA is just simply beautiful!!! From her studio you could hear the wind in the trees, the river running, birds singing and the air was fresh! It was really just lovely. I could totally see why she lived there. My ideal spot to live is in the mountains overlooking the ocean… Still searching for it. 🙂 In CA, Santa Cruz came very close for me. The Santa Cruz mountains are just… I don’t have words to describe it frankly…

When I asked Susan if there was anything she wanted from Australia, she said the only thing she wanted was a mosaic I’d made. Well, not having all that much left I did have Flutterby which now resides with her 🙂 and I’m so glad it does. I in turn got Big Love… Just what I needed! I own 5 Crocenzi originals now 😉 One would think I’m a fan of her work or something!

Susan was also gracious enough to let me sit in on her 1st class. I think it’s the beginning of a new career for her… Having been a teacher for the last 15 or so years, she’s a natural at it and her classes are fun. Guaranteed you’ll come away from one, or two (?) classes with a piece you’ll love. I know it has made me look at the potential of my mosaics in a different light, which came at a very necessary time as I was feeling rather blah about everything for a while. The combination of the mural intensive, Susan’s tempered glass class and me having just gone on a *major* de-cluttering of my house has got me all enthused again. Nothing like getting rid of crap. It literally clutters your soul and it is so therapeutic to chuck.

Anyway, it was a really fun get-together. Donna is way cool too and her piece she made was gorgeous. Thanks Susan! Thank whatever and whoever for the internet is all I have to say for giving me such great friends, who I can now count as “real life” friends, not just e-friends… 😉

Susan, Donna & I surrounded by those big gorgeous trees

Me and Donna

Aspire, my tempered glass piece I made in Susan’s class 🙂

Susan’s trade for Flutterby. I love this piece! It just sparkles and now adorns my love wall…

Donna’s tempered glass and polymer clay piece, Wild Hearts.

April was the month of hearts for me. Everywhere I turned there was one… I had to purchase Laurel True‘s graffiti tag when I saw it:

It’s about all I could afford, lol!