My mosaic won 2nd place!

I entered my mosaic, "Please, Can I Come In?" into the humor competition on the mosaic forum, CMA (Contemporary Mosaic Art), and was awarded 2nd place. I won a $50 gift certificate for Maryland Mosaics, of which I spent immediately, haha. The judge, Martin Cheek (who has long been one of my favorite mosaic artists!) said this about my mosaic:

"I’ve long been an admirer of Christine’s cats - of which, this is a great example. I love the limited but PRECISE palette that works so beautifully here. The wavy lines in the sky add an interest to the background andamento- which must represent about 90% of this piece. This would have been a worthy contender for the earlier challenge: Comp 1 on SPACE because compositionally it fulfills that brief...AND it would also qualify for Comp 2 - which was 20 x 20 cm. (8 x 8 inches.)
I love the way that the cat’s paws are lined up with his eyes - the whole face is completely symmetrical - which is what gives him(?) such a humorous look. The little paws overlapping the simple frame are an inspiration.... which reminds me: What is the difference between a cat and a comma? One has the paws before the claws and the other has the clause before the pause."

If you are a mosaic artist and are not currently a member of CMA, I HIGHLY recommend you join (it's free). There is an enormous gallery of beautiful mosaics to which you add your own, as well as an ongoing competition (current one is Medieval beasts), discussion forum, and a great place to network. Check it out!

2010 in review

At Flickr, it is a tradition for some mosaic artists to post a compilation photo of the work we did that year. Here is mine. In 2010 I made 16 mosaics: 5 trades, 4 commissions, 3 sold artworks, 1 gift, and a partridge in a pear tree, haha. Three of the mosaics have not yet sold. Two are in galleries and one will be coming with me to Austin, TX for the SAMA Conference and Mosaic Salon. So I'm pretty happy with this year's accomplishments!
In addition to these mosaics, I also made some progress on my book.
Here is a compilation photo of my book progress. I was able to finish four mosaics for the book, each 15x24". I'm hoping to get at least that many completed this year, if not more.

My other successes for 2010:
I exhibited my artwork in 10 shows, and for the first time, two of the galleries were outside of California (Ciel Gallery, Charlotte, NC and Maplestone Gallery, Ontario, Canada).
I attended my 2nd SAMA Conference in Chicago where I took three workshops to further my art education.
I received two people's choice awards, one for Beautiful Anyway and one for Toby the Goby.
My mosaic, Portia, was published in the new book, Mosaic Fine Art Portraits.
And I am awaiting the next steps after learning I have moved on to the design phase of a project I applied for at my local hospitals! Will keep you posted. :)

All in all, 2010 was a great year. I look forward to much more success and many more accomplishments in 2011 and I wish all of you the same!!

Detail of 7th mosaic for book

Nearly done with the 7th mosaic! Just a couple more days and I'll be finished, but here are a couple of detail shots. It went really quick compared to the previous two. This design was much simpler and no people or animals to slow me down. I'm excited to get to the next mosaic because the rest will be indoors and I can't wait to plan out all of the details of the furnishings!

My artwork has been published!

My mosaic, Portia, has been published in a new book called Mosaic Fine Art Portraits by Irit Levy and Pam Givens (Mosaic Fine Art Books, 2010). It is a beautiful book with some gorgeous portraits, many by mosaic artists who are new to me, so that was a nice surprise. The next book in the series will be Mosaic Fine Art Abstracts (tentatively named). There is currently a call out to artists to submit for this book. If you're interested, click here for more information. Deadline is February 10, 2011. I won't be submitting for that book as I don't create abstract art, but I hear one of the future books will be on animals and you can bet I will be submitting to that one!

This is the second time Portia has been published. The first was inside and on the cover of Mosaic Artist's Bible of Techniques by Teresa Mills (Quarto Publishing, 2009).

Also, last year, one of my cats, Pounce, was published in Laurel Skye's book, Mosaic Renaissance (North Light Books, 2009). This is one of my new favorite books, all about using millefiori in mosaics, so I'm very proud to be in it. If you work with millefiori in mosaics, you will love this book!

Happy Holidays to all!

This is most likely my final mosaic of 2010. It is called In a Pear Tree, it is 7x8" and is made with stained glass and millefiori.

Also, an update: I am getting close to finishing the 7th mosaic for my children's book. I should be finished with it by the end of the year and will post photos soon!

Happy New Year and thank you so much for following my blog!

Mosaic #6 for book is done!

Yay! Another mosaic for my book has been completed. I am now almost half way there! This mosaic took about 100 hours in a two month time span. Unfortunately I had many things slowing me down on this one. I'm hoping to pick up the pace on the next ones. It would be so great if I could have it ready to print by next summer! It is doable if I do nothing else, but that is not likely to happen. I had a lot of fun with the millefiori in this mosaic. I browsed Laurel Skye's book, Mosaic Renaissance, for inspiration in cutting the mille in different ways. Very fun! Here are a couple of detail shots. I will be able to show more in mosaic #7 so stay tuned!!

Day of the Dead ATC mosaic swap

I swapped mosaic ATCs with my super talented friend, Rebecca Collins! Rebecca creates such fun and creative mosaics with the most incredible eye for color I've ever seen. And I love her choice of subjects from dogs to beetles to octopi to robots - so playful and unique! Rebecca started a mosaic ATC swap blog if you're interested in joining in. The next theme is hearts or the color red. Here is the dog I received from Rebecca and the skeleton face I made for her.

Not only does Rebecca create awesome mosaics, but runs a fabulous computerized pet portrait business of which I took advantage of directly after adopting our cat, Raymi! She so easily and beautifully captures the essence of the animal and her skills in composition and color, I'm telling you, are to DIE for! I admire her talent so much and am so lucky to own two works of art by Rebecca. And I do intend on my collection of her art growing in the future. :)

Here's Rebecca's portrait of Raymi. Beautiful, huh?!!