Artist Watch: Laura Harris

Laura Harris of Melonhead Gallery, was first “introduced” to me by Carol Shelkin. An email from Carol, read, click and… POW! I was literally blown away. That hasn’t happened to me, to that extent,  in a long time. Her work is magnificent. To be perfectly honest I grapple for the words that describe how I feel when I view her work, and that is all in a photo on my trusty ol’ computer, so I can’t imagine what it would be like in person.  She is in my mind a Mythmaker, to borrow a term from the righteous James Hubbell.

Born in Wisconsin she is the daughter of late Midwest sculptor/painter, Walter Lenz.  Laura has been working in mixed media, including fiber art, acrylic art and mosaic art for over 25 years.  More recently, Laura has concentrated on mosaic portrait art.  Using a preferred direct method of application, her choice in tesserae include venetian and dichroic glass, 24 Kt. Italian gold smalti, porcelain, ceramic tile, mirror, stone and salvaged or recycled materials.

Laura’s career was not always limited to the field of art.  She worked as a speech-language pathologist for over 15 years and was recognized in 1998 as one of the top 5 teachers in Wisconsin for her efforts in the field of Assistive Technology and voted New Berlin Public School Teacher of the Year in 2001.

Laura got into mosaics in 1985 after having to quit teaching due to her worsening Multiple Sclerosis. She has risen above her physical limitations, as her artwork shows, but also in her attitude towards her MS: “I can’t feel all of my cuts so I guess there is a silver lining in everything, you just have to look for it.”

Her father has played a vital role in her life as she states: “I have been involved in art my whole life. My dad was an artist and a strong influence. I remember even as a young kid that my dad banned coloring books, he felt they were too restrictive and didn’t challenge the imagination. He also died from complications of MS in 2006.”

“Today, the world can appear fragmented and its people disconnected,  mosaics allow me to fuse the pieces  together to create something cohesive and beautiful , what I wish the world could be.”  –Laura Harris

The lovely Laura in the Cave of the Mounds on a family holiday, before exhibiting in Madison’s Art on the Square.

Artist Watch: Suzanne Steeves

I had originally meant to post this before SAMA and for some weird reason my email dumped Suzanne’s response to me in my spam… grrrr! So apologies to you Suzanne, for not having gotten this up sooner… *sigh*

Suzanne Steeves was born in New York to Canadian parents. She had a fabulous career in television overseeing the launch of a couple of specialty channels, running entertainment production, heading up sports. “Very rewarding and endlessly all-consuming.”  Suzanne met her ‘soul mate’ ten years ago –  husband Aiken. “We left our full time careers behind, and ran off to Bora Bora to get married.”

As a child, Suzanne was constantly drawing, painting and actually did her first mosaic at age ten. “It was a gift for my grandmother. A picture made from all different types of seeds: pumpkin, poppy, sesame etc. My grandmother kept it hanging on her wall until she left this world.”

After the demise of her first marriage, Suzanne became a single parent with a demanding career and had little time to pursue her passion – art. “I did paint, but sporadically. Now I am making up for lost time. Initially I picked up my paint brushes and went back to oils. I had always loved mosaic but had never really considered it … until one day I happened to see a used mannequin with a uniquely beautiful shape. I immediately envisioned Eden Rocks. The idea of telling the story of the Garden of Eden – on Eve herself…” Suzanne claims it to be a ridiculous choice for a first project (scoff!) but considers herself an over achiever. “After starting her I realized I had no idea what I was doing. I spent the next several months reading everything I could get my hands on. I completed her last year and haven’t looked back.”

When describing her love for the medium, Suzanne states: “I can’t begin to describe the pleasure I find in working in mosaics. I love everything about it. The possibilities are limitless. I would need dozens of lifetimes to even begin to tackle every project I have wandering around in my head! When I’m in the zone it is my meditation.”

Suzanne left the city behind and now lives with Aiken and their two dogs on 100 acres north of Toronto. She has two beautiful grown children, a son Stefan and daughter Sasha and a wonderful stepson, Taylor.

Eden Rocks

Polar Prayer

Bird in the  Hot Sun

The Wave

Finally meet Suzanne, pictured with her daughter…

Artist Watch: Natalie Warne

Jumping right back in, the next mosaic artist I wanted to highlight is Natalie Warne.

Most of you, I’m certain, are aware of her work. I love how her art makes me feel. Don’t quite have my finger on exactly why… Anyway, let’s meet her! I must say reading through the info Natalie sent me, it was uncanny how many parallels there were in both our lives… it’s this weird occurrence which has happened with alot of the artists I’ve written about here.

Natalie was born in Cyprus and resided there for the first couple years of her life. She moved around a fair bit until her parents settled in Plymouth, England at around the age of 5. Not being terribly excited by school, she went to college to do a ‘Nursery Nursing’ course and ended up studying art – this was her favourite subject.

At the ripe old age of 18 she made the move to London (Wimbledon to be precise) to become a Nanny (I did this too… in Wimbledon!!! For 3 weeks, but went for longer!!!). This did not work out for her and she returned to Plymouth to work in the bingo hall in the city. This is where she met her partner, Keith. After toiling in jobs, buying a home together, doing all the things we do they decided to pack up and travel: ” Keith & I had become unhappy with the same old routine of getting up at 6am, getting caught in traffic, doing the same stressful but boring jobs. (we were earning good money, but realised that is certainly not the most important thing in life!)”. So they sold up all their belongings, bought a VW camper van and hit the road 🙂

They used the Netherlands as their base, mainly there in the warmer months and travelled off to warmer pastures in the Winter months – Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Egypt. “…from Luxor we joined with some other travellers & hired a falucca to go down the Nile to Aswan. This was one of the best things we have ever done, we slept on the deck & it was amazing, the scenery, the floating hotels!!…”. Sounds divine! They continued on using the Netherlands as their base for another 6 or so years, during which time they also managed to get away to parts of South East Asia, India, even Hawaii. “Travelling to all these places & experiencing the diverse habitats, people & man made works of art (especially the Wats (temples) in Thailand, which are stunningly beautiful) & learning meditation & yogic breathing along the way, changed us both & led us towards a more spiritual/less material way of life.” Amen.

Throughout this time, Natalie had started making jewellery: earring, necklaces etc all with semi-precious stones. Her Mum and herself decided to open up shop back in the UK – Totnes to be precise which is down in Devon (I lived in Salcombe for a short while, a beautiful little place close by…). This is how they ended back in the UK.

Discovering mosaics four years ago, her hobby soon turned into her passion: “At the beginning all I could afford to use were ceramic tiles, so most of my earlier work is in that medium. I then started buying vitreous glass tiles in mixed colour kilo bags, which gave me different colours & textures to work with.”

Just over a year ago, she thought to give mosaics a more serious try, quit her day job and working part time with Keith allowed her the freedom and flexibility to give it a serious go. “I cannot describe how happy it made me feel to get the time to really concentrate on trying different methods & materials & to start stretching myself creatively.”

Natalie is a self taught artist and believes this enhances her work as she is not limited by the rules that are applied in art. ” I did find the groups on Flickr & have found it most helpful to read the help & tips on these forums.” She has been concentrating on exhibiting her work over the past year, a solo show in her hometown of Totnes as well as sending off a piece to Ciel Gallery, located in the US.

As for her where she feels she is heading, as an artist: “I seem to be moving towards doing mixed media mosaics as I love the textures & play of light on a piece that has many levels, I am not so keen on the grouting part of these types of mosaics and sort of heave a sigh of relief when I am doing an easy grout job. Saying that, it doesn’t stop me from doing them!!! I had a lot of beads & semi precious stones over from my time making jewellery so I love to incorporate them & any other little bits & bobs that I pick up all over the place (charity shops etc). I also really enjoy using stained glass & when I go to a glass shop I am like a kid in a sweet shop!! I have recently discovered tempered glass & am at the moment doing a series of Ladies (seasons) & am using tempered glass, along with other materials, to bring these to fruition. Colours are extremely important to me, & I LOVE bright primary colours, I love rainbows. Sometimes a mosaic design pops into my head just because of a certain glass colour or texture. I think I sort of work instinctively & go with what feels right & mostly that works out for me. I sometimes have a whole design in my head when I start to work on a piece, but often as I start to draw things out on the substrate things change & evolve as I go along. I do not like to be too rigid with myself & just let the creative process morph into being. I have also enjoyed making things for some challenges on the web, as these often take me in a direction I have not tried before & make me be a bit more disciplined. I feel I am so lucky to earn a bit of money doing something I love & it would be great to be able to sell more! I have so many ideas for mosaics in my head I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do them all in my lifetime, but I’m going to give it a bloody good try.”

Well here’s to you Natalie! I think you are giving it a bloody good try too 🙂

Here are some of my favourites, but I do think that you should go check her flickr site for more…

And finally, meet Natalie:

Artist Watch: Ulrike Martinez

Next on my list of thoroughly interesting people is Ulrike Stancil-Martinez, better known to most of us as Ully, or on Flickr as Ullybby.

Born and raised in Germany, Ully went to Dental School and received her Bachelor of Science degree before moving permanently to the US. She first moved out to Georgia in 1969, choosing to live in Atlanta and Savannah, where her daughter – who seems to have not only inherited her good looks, but also her creative abilities – was born. Nowadays she can be found residing in Palm Springs CA, where she has been living for the past 18 years. Previous to this, though, she lived in Avalon on Catalina Island for 4 years – which I must say is a curiosity as I have ties to the island aswell! She claims that her time spent on Catalina were some of the best years of her life.

Ully dabbled in fashion design even sewing the clothes themselves, modeling, painting murals, some interior design and also has a license in manicure and desktop-publishing.

Ully discovered mosaics quite by accident about two years ago (this is becoming a theme with us all!). Her husband brought home large marble tiles that were left over from some houses he was building. “I just did not have the heart to throw them away and then it hit me! I went on the internet and looked at mosaics but had no idea how to make them…”. Ully was so anxious to start that she just jumped right in. Her first mosaic was a seahorse that she installed in the shower of her bathroom.

She found that her experience as a dental technician came in handy with her mosaics as both take a huge amount of attention to detail. In 1999, Ully suffered extensive injuries to both her arms, preventing her from continuing her dental career. She was well known as a great dentist and her clients, still to this day, tell her she’s the best! 🙂 “I was a mess until the magic marble appeared and mosaic came into my Life”.

Ully is entirely self-taught. Can you imagine that?! When I asked her if she’d taken any courses, her response almost seemed self conscious that she had in fact not and has solely learned from books and “lots of bloody fingers from the hammer and hardie”… Conversely, I would have to say that it makes me that much more in awe of her work!

Inspiration for her comes from things that are around her. Not necessarily directly either, some things around her will evoke a memory – her time spent when she used to walk in the woods, the certain colour of a stone, the layout of a magazine, even a TV show! They can all inspire her in some way where she must immediately put pencil to paper and sketch the image in her mind.

When I asked her what her advice (if any) would be, she replied , “If I could give advice to somebody about anything and I can with 61 years – I have lived a little – follow your heart, but do not forget to use your mind also. These two go hand in hand. If you follow your brain only, you end up unhappy and same goes with only following your heart. If you use both heart and mind, happiness is guaranteed.”

You can find more of her mosaics on her website and I’ve included some of my favourites below.

And some pieces that have not (yet?) been finished, but that I just adore!

Finally, meet Ully:

Artist Watch: Ewa Chirkowska

Up next is Ewa Chirkowska, who hails from Poland. The moment I laid eyes on her work my breath was taken away, goosebumps had risen… she’s simply amazing!

Ewa’s mosaic adventure started a few years ago, during her summer holidays in Tunisia. In Sousse, Ewa went to the local museum and it was there that she was enchanted by the wonderful ancient mosaics – “colourful time capsules”, as she says.

She was also impressed by the ornamental tiles, which she found everywhere. The year before her trip to Tunisia, she had seen azulejos used to decorate houses in Majorca, Spain and she was fascinated by the beauty of the Moorish style in ceramic wares. “All those summer ‘experiences’ as well as my encounters with the mosaics and ceramics became my great passion. My intuition, my ‘inner voice’ told me: mosaic – this form of artistic expression is for you! You must do it!”

Following this inner voice, Ewa started looking for available materials in her hometown of Poznań. She created her first mosaics almost 3 years ago. It was made of pebbles bought in a nearby IKEA. She was astonished to find out that there in Poznań was a small manufacturer that produced hand made tiles, ceramic borders and colourful square tiles (1cm x 1cm). “What a coincidence!”, she says “Or the evidence of ‘synchronicity’ (as C.G. Jung would say) which had strongly influenced my life…”

At this time, Ewa had been working in a soul-less job for a large corporation going on a couple of years. She realised that this was the moment in her life that she needed to quit her job, to change profession and fully devote herself to her mosaics. Both husband and daughter were fully supportive of her making this change.

Soon enough she discovered stained glass and fell in love. “Oddly enough, I found out that there is a warehouse in Poznań which offers glass of various shades of colour. I could spend hours watching those wonderful sheets… Was it more evidence of ‘synchronicity’? There are only three warehouses in Poland where you can buy stained glass – and one of them is only two miles away from my house!”

Ewa has found her support for mo-love through the yahoo groups: MAO (Mosaicartistorg) and MAG (Mosaic Addicts Group). “They have always provided me with support and kind words!”

She is inspired by the works of such artists as Antonio Gaudi (“I dream of a journey following in Gaudi’s wake!”), artistic team Hans Unger-Eberhard Schulze ( Unger-Schulze Mosaics ) , Mia Tavonatti and Carole Choucair Oueija.

“I am very happy that I have found my own way of artistic expression through mosaic! It happened so unexpectedly…”

Now time for the eye candy 🙂 Ewa seems to work in large scale, so I can only imagine how amazing these are. I’ve included dimensions for each pic underneath…

“Africa” – Mosaic inspired by “The Watering Hole” by Jonathan Sanders; 119cm x 68cm or 47″ x 27″

“Crocodile” 58cm x 250cm or 23″ x 99″

“Klimt, My Inspiration”67cm x 200cm or 26″ x 79”

“Kangaroo” 70.5cm x 103cm or 28″ x 40″

“Lizard I” 60cm x 40cm or 23.5″ x 16″

Meet the lovely Ewa:

Artist Watch: Gila Rayberg

I’ve been looking forward to writing this post – Gila is such an interesting and amazing person and I just got goosebumps when I read over the info she sent me about herself. And then of course there are her mosaics!
As the youngest of 6 kids, most of whom are artists and/or musicians, Gila was exposed to art and music at an early age. She counts her sister, renowned mosaic artist in her own right Elizabeth Raybee, as being one of her earliest influences. “By the time I was cognizant”, says Gila, “there was already plenty of music & art around. I remember my bedroom as a little girl, painted (by Elizabeth & perhaps some of her friends) chartreuse & covered with jungle animals and trees. On another wall was this bony woman with long skinny arms & poky fingers. Even though she looked kind of scary, I always thought she was way cool.”

The summer prior to her graduating from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, she spent that time with Elizabeth in San Francisco. She was taking a couple of art and geology electives at SF State to complete some requirements before graduating in ’89 (BA in Music). It was at this time that Elizabeth was just beginning in her mosaic adventures and it was in her studio that Gila got her start in mosaics; grouting Elizabeths’s first mosaic no less! Gila’s first actual mosaic was a table that she made in 1990.

After earning her Masters Degree (MM, Trombone Performance) Gila spent a year traveling around the world solo, followed by several years of teaching & more travel throughout SE Asia. One of the most memorable & life altering adventures of her life was spending time on the remote Indonesian Island of Siberut with the Mentawai people. Her time there is often a source of inspiration, both figuratively & in the abstract. Here’s a picture of her host & medicine man, Tarason, the inspiration for one of her first attempts at mosaic portraiture.

One of the more interesting positions Gila found herself in was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where she was helping to organize a National Marching Band. Here she is directing the trombone choir during one of their music camp concerts. (1992)

After that experience, Gila joined the Faculty of Music at the University of Malaysia, Sarawak (Kuching, Borneo) where she taught instrumental (winds & brass) music & directed the orchestra. Throughout all her travels & adventures, she had an image in her mind of one day owning a place of her own where she could mosaic everything in sight. It was a very strong feeling & persistent.

In 1999 Gila returned to the USA & settled in New Orleans, where not long after, she met her partner Mark. It was for his birthday that she decided to make him a mosaic table. Gila had no tools, no materials & hadn’t made a mosaic in at least 6 years. “It wasn’t easy getting everything together without him knowing! When I gave it to him, he was speechless!! Believe me, that’s a rarity!”, she states.

That table really started her on her current path. Mark is way beyond supportive of her mosaic mania. Plus, he REALLY loves her work. There is rarely a piece that he wants her to sell. He prefers, & Gila concurs, it would be great to win the lottery so they could have a spacious gallery for her mosaics and the artwork they’ve collected over the years. Don’t we all?! I love how supportive her partner is. It’s a base that I certainly need in order for my creativity to really flourish, so I really admire them for this.

Gila goes on to say, “I feel as though through mosaics I’ve finally found my improvisational voice while continuing on of my life’s adventures; exploring materials & continually experimenting keeps me fully engaged with plenty of space for spontaneity.”

Gila teaches workshops between other projects, on an irregular basis. She usually holds 4-6 workshops a year with up to 6 participants. She has always been passionate about teaching & enjoys discovering the similarities between music & mosaic in the process. “I guess, since I love to learn, it makes sense that I love to teach!”

“It’s my aim for each participant to leave equipped to do something similar on their own. Among other things, we discuss tools, materials, design & inspiration.” One thing that everyone loves is the wide range of materials in her studio, from which they can choose to create their mosaic.

If you are interested in the classes, email Gila and you should check out her website as well as her Flickr account. Her portfolio is so huge that I can’t possibly really show it off here to its fullest potential… But here are some of my faves:

details of her kitchen window… it’s just stunning!!!

Finally, meet Gila 🙂

Artist Watch: Annie Thomas-Burke

Next on my hit list is Annie (aka Annie B’s Art… Bit By Bit, on Flickr). There’s no way I would have ever known that she’s been mosaicing for less than a year, had she not told me. Her mosaics are, to me, very “from the heart”.

Annie became interested in mosaic as an art form purely by accident. An old table needed repair or, as she says “set on fire”!!! 🙂 Instead of adding it to the burn pile, she chose to mosaic it with smashed ceramic 4 x 4 tiles. “During that process”, she says, ” something happened to me. I found what I call my Mojo. A place I go to when I am completely engrossed in a project and at peace. It was the most amazing feeling and I selfishly wanted more.”

Her second project was a little box that she mosaiced a pansy on. ” I’m still looking for that flower. It is lost among bad cuts and improper placement.” Really… I think it was lovely. But what I do love about Annie is that she is her own worse critic and I think it’s what moves and shakes her to do better – she challenges herself. I’d say we all have an element of it, but it’s keeping it healthy that is the balance.

To look through her work you can see how with each piece she has grown as an artist, “… I kept on trying new things with each new piece. I have been in love with mosaic art and in particular, stained glass Mosaics for about a year now. This year has taught me much, with much left to learn. I enjoy each step of that education.”

Women In Motion, Annie’s first series of mosaics is still in progress. Her aim is to do a series of women in motion, doing ordinary things. She also wanted them to be any woman, without defined features and so chose to do them in silhouette.

And finally, meet Annie…