I was looking through one of the mosaic forums the other week and came across one of Rebecca Collins‘ octopus pieces. Thinking I had seen it somewhere before (yup, flickr!!) it still struck me and I couldn’t stop looking at her work. There’s something so free about her mosaics and I can’t quite put my finger on it. Anyway, of course typical immediate reaction was that I needed to know a little bit more about her, the artist So here goes…

Already coming from a creative background (she’s a full time digital pet portrait artist – and I have to say I love what she does there too!! Check out her website), Rebecca discovered mosaics in 2007 when she took a class with a girlfriend on a whim. She’s been hooked ever since. Although she has mentioned before that her works are not intricate or exacting, I would beg to differ. She has her own unique style and it is free, but still very exact. There’s messy and then there’s messy! Of which her work is neither, in my humble opinion. “When I took my first mosaic class I was not sure if I would have the patience or the ability to sit still and work on a piece slowly. It turns out that my impatient nature does show through in my work as I tend to work fast creating loosely cut works with tons of tiny tessera. I do not get horribly bogged down in a desire to create elaborate intricate or exacting patterns. I love it when I see that type of work, but I could never go there.”

I love how she layers her work, how there’s such a bohemian feel to it (and I mean that as a compliment!, not wanting to categorise inappropriately here). She does what my anal self would love to be able to do but finds very difficult to just let go. This statement pretty much sums up what I love about her work: “My interest is in combining layers of collage images and text underneath glass. I use my computer skills to create digital paintings that get collaged with text and other elements for a rich look. I also will create watercolors from scratch and then scan those into the computer and work on them in Photoshop and then print them out to incorporate into my mosaic designs. I enjoy the back and forth of using traditional tools and media along with the computer and all that it offers.”

Her mosaics are, for her, an escape. Dare I say, a hobby. It is her part time passion and she is reluctant to really market her work as she doesn’t want to turn it into a “job” of any sort. “I do love my full time business of creating pretty dog and cat portraits and yet mosaics are my escape from that create-on-demand world. I think that is one reason I often choose squid and bugs as subject matter. I know that nobody is going to ask me to create a mosaic for them of their pet cockroach.”

However, due in large part to the generous support of her mentor and teacher, Katrina Doran, this year has marked the beginning of taking her mosaics more seriously. Doran curated a show called Exquisite Creatures: the Mermaid and Octopus show. “Seeing my work under gallery lights was just a great feeling. I hope to show more in the future and to start exploring new subjects. I have some outer space theme ideas on the back burner that I want to jump on soon. Like most artists I always tend to have more ideas than time.”

I am absolutely enamoured with her work!!! Colour, texture, layers, vibrance… it has it all!!

More info about Rebecca and her work  can be found via her blog and Etsy shop.

One of my faves!!!

And finally Rebecca, with Ajax…

//

Do you facebook? Somewhere I really spend (aka waste) waaaaay too much of my time, but I do like to know what is going on with all my friends OS, so it’s a great tool for exactly that. If you do – check out my page and become a fan!

Kim Grant Mosaics

Am also  in the midst of trying to finish a mural I started a little while back. OK, in all fairness it was a long while back. This is a collaborative effort with my little sister, Natalie Grant, who is also an artist in her own right. Her next artistic venture is on the path to becoming a tattoo artist. When she visited early 2008 I had her outline one of her mermaid and octopus sketches she’s been drawing for many years at full scale in my Dad’s garden. I set about mosaicing it and it has taken me this long to even approach the finish line – which is frankly a long way off.  Still  to finish is 3 octopus legs (almost done) a fish and its bubbles, grouting, sanding and painting before finally sealing…

It was a lovely Sunday – cool Winter’s day with the sun shining down and warming my every being while I sat and worked non-stop.  Well not quite sat. One also has to be an acrobat when wanting to be a mosaic artist. My Dad perched in his chair looking on, cooking lunch and falling in and out of sleep. Was a good day.

I hadn’t so much as picked up a single tool or tess since returning from my trip OS. Always a little disconcerting but I’ve learned to just go wtih it. It is what it is and I can’t force ‘it’.  I find myself in these moments of exhaustion. Then all of sudden out of the blue it all comes back in a gazillion different images in my mind, at a million miles per hour along with the title of each piece  and then I am fighting for time to get it all out of my head and onto a substrate. I went and bought myself a real sketchbook today for fear of it all disappearing…

Next in line, good pal Linda Martin who I had the pleasure of meeting in Sue Gianotti’s class at SAMA. It was a huge (but silent) wave and YAAAAAY!!!!! We hit it off immediately – but I think she has a way with people and hits it off with everyone she meets. Really a very special person – warm and generous.

Linda has always been creative. Always. In high school she carried around a sketch book with her everywhere she went. Whilst living in Hawaii, she sat on the beach crocheting bathing suit tops she sold for “gas money”. She came across mosaics while perusing a craft store with her then 8 year old son: “He always got inspired on a trip to the craft store with mom so I picked up a little mosaic garden plaque for him to do. We started to do it together but I think he lost interest, or I took over, or maybe he lost interest because I took over, in any case I caught a mosaic fever.”

After that venture, Linda borrowed books from the library and studied them, researched the internet and spent hours studying other artists’ work. “I began to play around with breaking glass, dishes, and tile, ordering supplies and tools from the web, experimenting with everything I could get my hands on.” One of her first projects was covering a lava lamp with broken dishes which she called Shab-a-delic. “At the time I was quite pleased with myself, but looking at it now…. Ahhhhhhh!” LOL!!! Don’t we all have a million of them somewhere?!

Linda also made lots of picture frames, and a license plate cover for her car, all of which she says fell apart as she was using the wrong materials. “These early projects took me forever to complete and were not very good, but I was having fun and learning.” I always say there’s no better way of learning than by doing… Her “coming-out” was with a mannequin titled “Courting Laura” which Linda entered into a fundraiser for breast cancer.

After moving back to her native California, she was conveniently located an hour or so from the Institute of Mosaic Art, in Oakland. “I started taking classes there… lots of classes. That’s how it all began…”

Her future direction is in therapeutic mosaics. Linda has been an Occupational Therapist for a good portion of her life and has done a few projects combining both – mosaics with her patients: “I have the license as an occupational therapist, the skills as a mosaic artist, and the time and resources to go further”. Producing community murals is big on her list of to-dos. I love that. I’m such a fan of art-with-meaning, as opposed to art-for-the-sake-of-art. Not that I don’t appreciate that either…

Linda says, “I want to focus on mural projects with parents and their children, bonding, communication skills, and improvement of quality of life. Now, when I say parent/child relationship, parents of younger children comes to mind. But I want to work with the older population, the elderly parents and their adult children. That’s the bond I want to facilitate with the murals.”

Linda reminisces, “I remember once when working in a skilled nursing facility, aka nursing home, I was doing water colour paintings with the patients. This one female patients’ daughter loved her mother’s picture so much she had it framed and it looked stunning! Two months later the mother died. Her daughter came up to me and thanked me for the work I did and especially for the painting, a final memento of her beloved mother. It’s bonds like this I want to continue.”

Linda’s mosaics can be seen this summer in the juried show “Art on the Wharf”, July 19th at the Santa Cruz Pier. A show consisting of only 30 artists.

And finally, the artiste herself, sitting atop her community arts project she led also as an occupational therapist.

//

If you are in the Sydney area on Wednesday June 17, I recommend you head on over to Contempo and attend “Art Smart: Learn the legal side of art and design”.

Here is an excerpt:

Contempo and Arts Law will be presenting an evening on intellectual property rights in the world of art. Learn what copyright and design protection is, and how it helps you as an artist.

For more info on this event go to their website. I think I might knock off work early that day and pull an all-nighter drive… If they can pack in even just a little of the information I’d like to know in those 2 hours, it would make it worth driving 7 hours there and back!!

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.

So I’ve finally gotten my act together and will be offering classes beginning this Winter. I will be working out of my studio here in Canberra (Northside) and am offering the following workshops:

• Interior Mosaic Basics
• Exterior Mosaic Basics
• Beginning Tempered Glass Mosaics
• Kids’ Mosaics (two age groups: 3-6 years and 7 and up)
• Grout Clinic

More will come, eventually. I also plan on doing a reverse indirect class and a mural making class, so they are all in the pipeline but for now I think I have my hands full.

Classes are currently restricted in size to a maximum of 4 students, minimum is 2. Perfect for beginners who have had no mosaic experience and are also adaptable for those seeking more of a challenge.

I’m also offering one on one tuition and can travel, given the right circumstances Please just contact me if you’re interested.

All the info can be found on my newly renovated website: kimgrantmosaics.com

Happy Mosaicing All!!

Onwards to Chiswick, London where Baroness Von Reichardt (aka Carrie and used ironically of course) has been mosaicing her home one piece at a time. Her mosaics caught my eye a while back now, not long after I first joined flickr. What really stopped me was the fact that she combines her political persuasions in her art, and pulls it off with such aplomb! I really don’t think it’s an easy thing to do.

Carrie graduated from Leeds University with a fine arts degree. She specialised in creating art projects for schools and councils – not necessarily a breeding ground for free interpretation of design. Her creative freedom came about when she started working on her own home and thus The Treatment Rooms was born. With an interest in Outsider and Visionary art as well as graffiti and with partner “Mr Spunky” by her side, Carrie set about creating her own fantasy world. “I liked the idea that on this quaint little street in Chiswick something as incongruous as a house completely covered in mosaic art might exist.”

What we see come through are her strong political persuasions as well as an immense amount of passionate empathy. I, for one, love the message in her art. Her beliefs lie strongly in the cathartic value of art more than the monetary value of art. {Hear Hear!}

Before having found mosaics, Carrie suffered from extreme clinical depression, to the point of near hospitalisation. Mosaics brought her back from that brink and it was at around the same time that she had read something in the Big Issue asking for people to write death row inmates as a humanitarian gesture. She did and what resulted, other than an enormous amount of respect and perspective in Life, was life changing. “… no matter how bad you may feel at least you’re not incarcerated and awaiting execution.”

“One of the inmates I wrote was Luis Ramirez. After Luis’ execution, I started mosaicing for eight hours a day. The wall around the back garden is in memory of him, whom I believe was innocent and unjustly convicted for murder. Today, I have five pen pals on Death Row.”

“My correspondence with Luis was my introduction to the horrors of the American criminal justice system. Most people have no idea how awful Death Row really is. They don’t realize how arbitrary so call “justice” is. Luis once told me that “captial punishment means, those with no capital get punished.” I see the death penalty in America as a continued form of lynching, just now they kill the poor along with the blacks.”

Her obsessive compulsive tendencies have also lead her to have one of the most extensive collections of vintage ceramic decals. Carrie spent many years trying to figure out the techinque of transferring her own designs onto ceramic. What culminated was a technique of layering images, using a combination of homemade, vintage and digital ceramic decals (transfers) that she sources from across the globe and is slowly tiling the entire inside of her house with.

The Baroness’ art has been featured in a diverse selection of publications, including Raw Vision, The Guardian, The Evening Standard, Nude, Tile and Stone, Grout, Westside, The Londonist, Abort, Mozake, That’s Life and Soho House magazine.

Passionate, articulate and incredibly talented… we need more artists like her. I’m looking forward to a visit to the UK in the next year or two and the Treatment Rooms are high on my landmarks to visit.

More pics on the Carrie’s flickr site as well as Treatment Rooms’ flickr site.

Jackie Sumell, Robert King and The Baroness after the back wall was unveiled on Summer Soltice, June 21st 2008.
Robert King has spent 29 years in solitary confinment, before being exonerated in 2001. He is the only freed member of the Angola3.

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

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…

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?