Small Works Show

I will have a couple of my mosaics in "Close Encounters" Small Works Show at the Wildling Art Museum in Los Olivos, CA with the Artists Guild of the Santa Ynez Valley.  They will be hung from November 30, 2011 until January 8, 2012.  Come to the Holiday Open House on Saturday, December 3, from 3:00-6:00 p.m. as part of Los Olivos' Olde Fashioned Christmas Event. Free cider and cookies, make your own pinecone ornaments for your tree or as a gift. Singer-songwriter Teresa McNeil MacLean will be entertaining guests in the museum galleries. Artists' demonstrations, including Chris Hansen, Cathy McGavin, and Nicki Beltranena.  Tree lighting ceremony at 6pm.  Wildling Art Museum is at 2928 San Marcos Ave., Los Olivos, CA. 

Mosaic #10 for book is done!

Yippee!  One step closer to finishing my book.  It looks like I have four more large mosaics to go (15x24" each), plus one half the size for the last page.  I will also do a couple mini mosaics for the front and back pages.  I should be finished with them by next summer and then send them to print!  Can't wait.  Off to design #11.  :)

Designs for SAMA Mosaic Marathon

Yes! Me! I will be leading the mosaic marathon at the next SAMA (Society of American Mosaic Artists) conference in Lexington, KY this coming February. I've created designs for three panels that will be made into mosaics by the conference goers in four days! The triptych will be installed in the lobby of the not-for-profit organization, The Nest: Center for Women, Children & Families. It will be the first time I lead a community built mosaic, so this will be a very new experience for me.

I knew immediately I wanted to use birds in the designs. I did research on the common birds in the area, as well as the trees. I asked the director of The Nest what birds were in the area and he told me that goldfinches were everywhere! I wanted to choose a bird that most people were familiar with so I went with them. When I looked up trees, I fell in love with the tulip tree, the state tree of Kentucky. What gorgeous flowers!!

Now that I had my bird and my tree, onto the design. I love the bird art of Hokusai (here's one of my favorites) and I really wanted to create something with that same kind of space. Once I decided on the size of each panel, I created small rectangles, 1/6 the size of the actual mosaics, so I could draw the flow of the branches first, which, to me, are the most important part to get right because it determines the underlying composition. (I work quite small when I design for large projects because I can see the overall composition so much easier.) Once the basic lines (very basic!) were decided, I could then go into detail and add the leaves, flowers and birds.

When my drawings were done, I scanned them, cleaned up the pencil marks in a paint program, and then printed them to color in. Once they were colored, I noticed a break in the flow of the composition. I realized there were too many flowers in the second panel. The flow of the branches wasn't working for me. Here's what I saw. When I took out two of the flowers, I was much happier with it. Because the panels will not be hung right next to each other, it didn't matter if the flowers connected from one panel to the next.






Once I fixed the flowers, I then began to play with the background in the paint program. For me, the background color is very important to get right, so I like to experiment with colors in the paint program before I actually color them with pencils. Here's some of the many colors I tried:












Once I decided on the periwinkle color, I printed the three panels very tiny so I could figure out the andamento of the background. I have much more control of the flow when it's so small. I draw right over the foreground so my lines are smooth and continuous.



I then colored one of the scans with these new andamento lines and wa la! Done. Here is where they will go. The first panel will be 2 1/2 x 3', the middle panel will be 2 1/2 x 5 1/2', and the last panel will be 2 1/2 x 4 1/2'. The mosaics will be made with Mexican smalti, provided by smalti.com.  The first two panels symbolize the families who come to The Nest, receiving nurturing, support and guidance.  The last panel represents the families, when they are ready to be on their own, flying away.

I am super excited about this project! I am really looking forward to seeing my designs come to life in February. If you're at the conference, please come by and lay a few pieces down! I'd love to see you. :)

Book mosaic #10 underway

The book has been on hold while I was creating designs for a large mosaic project to be created in February 2012 (more details on that later!). Back to the book this week and it feels good! Once again, Raymi makes another appearance. She'll be in several more pages before the book is done. There are only a couple of main elements on this page so it is mostly background, which hopefully means it will go kinda fast. I have maybe five more mosaics to create after this one, so I need to get rolling if I want to be done by next summer!

Finished Mosaic #9 For Book!

I'm so happy to be done with this mosaic. It took a very long time, my longest yet, AND it created more future work for me: I had to change a couple of things to make them work for this design, and now I have to change them in previous mosaics! It's times like these, I wish I were a painter!

Here are a few detail shots. I've been adding as many personal touches as I can to this book. Raymi, our cat, features heavily in this book! The guitar is my husband's. And all of the artwork on the walls will be of my already completed mosaics. I take photos of them and put them in between two pieces of glass. I then seal the edges with tape so the grout doesn't seep through later. Here's a couple of my cats!

I won't be starting mosaic #10 for a few weeks (but hopefully sooner) while I work on a design for an upcoming project. More details on that to come later!

Two Years on my Book!

I know I haven't posted in over a month, but trust me, I've been working hard on my book! This week marks two years since I started the process. Wow! I remember thinking I'd be done in a year. Now I'll be happy if I'm done in three!

I'm in the middle of mosaic #9 and have gotten the hardest parts done, so the rest should go much faster (famous last words, right?). Here's a little bit of it. Raymi makes her fifth appearance in the book. She's really small in this mosaic, about 1x2", and I struggled with cutting glass for her eyes because of that. However, I found this millefiori that fit just right! She looks a little bug eyed at the moment, but she'll look better grouted. :)

I decided after my last mosaic trade that I was going to focus on the book alone and not create mosaics for any other purpose, (unless a commission happens to come my way!) With that in mind, my ultimate goal is to finish one mosaic a month. At that rate, I would finish around January of next year. I would then spend a couple of months making changes to the mosaics. I have a long list of them, some very small, others will take a lot longer. I realize my style and skill level have changed and grown since I began, so that is making it a bit difficult because I'd do so many things differently now. However, I'd never finish the book if I kept making changes as I grew! So I will try and keep it under control, ha.

After that, transferring the mosaics on mesh to wedi and grouting them will take me a looooong time. Then photographing them and having Barb put the book together will be about another month. All in all, I'm hoping the book will be ready to go to print by summer of next year. I can hardly contain my excitement! But that is good motivation to finish as soon as I can. Thanks for following my progress!

New mosaic cats

I took a break from my book to create two mosaics. While in Austin, during the SAMA conference, one of my favorite mosaic artists, Martin Cheek, approached me and asked if I'd do a trade with him! Well, I've done so many mosaic trades over the past few years and had decided I wouldn't do any more for awhile because they take time away from my book, but could I pass this up? No way!

Martin wanted a cat so we decided on a cat trade. I already own a mosaic of a mouse by Martin, which I bought a few years ago, and I was more than happy to add to my Martin Cheek collection! I went on his web site to look at the many cat mosaics he had already made. When I saw Skinny Cat, I immediately knew that was the one I wanted! He shipped it to me while I got to work on his mosaic. Blue Cat, which is 8x10", was modeled after our family cat, Raymi, who has appeared in more of my mosaics than I can count! Check out Skinny Cat! I love those wild eyes!

Then he told me his daughter, Mollie, really liked my cat mosaics and would I be willing to do a trade with her as well. She makes adorable fused glass jewelry, mostly of animals, including cats, ha. So I said, absolutely!! She's going to make me either a turtle or a cat necklace. See how wonderful they are?! If you want to see more of her jewelry, follow this link. Spotted Kitten is the mosaic I made for her. It is 4x5".


As for the book, I am currently working on the design for Mosaic #9. I hope to get started cutting glass in the next week and will keep you posted with the progress!!