New work - Waiting on the Night

My newest mosaic, Waiting on the Night, was made for the mosaic art salon for this year's SAMA (Society of Mosaic Artists) Conference in Philadelphia (March 10-15). The mosaic salon is where SAMA members can display their mosaic art to be purchased by the highest bidder. It's always fun to view all of the art and to possibly come home with one. My mosaic is 6x10" and is made with stained glass, millefiori, seed beads, and glass fusions.  This will be my first visit to Philadelphia and I'm very excited to explore the city and see my friends.  Maybe I'll see you there!

MAPEI Invitational 2015

Untitled, 12x12", stained glass, millefiori

A couple of months ago I was invited by SAMA (Society of American Mosaic Artists) to be one of 20 artists to participate in the 2nd MAPEI Invitational. Each artist created a 12x12" mosaic interpretation of MAPEI's 2015 marketing campaign theme, The World of MAPEI, to display in their booth at the International Surface Event in Las Vegas in January. The mosaics will next be exhibited at the upcoming SAMA Conference (March 10-15) in Philadelphia so if you're attending, look for them in the vendor marketplace. Finally, they will be permanently installed at MAPEI's America's headquarters in Florida and the world headquarters in Milan, Italy. To see all 20 mosaics, visit SAMA's Facebook page here. Thanks, SAMA!

Display at International Surface Event, Las Vegas

Mosaic for Hospital

I adopted my mom's cat, Red,
who is watching over two of the three panels

I recently received the go-ahead on a project I applied for more than four years ago! After much delay, I was able to start cutting glass for a triptych that will be installed at Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital. The three panels total 24 square feet and will hang in the hospital's sacred space.

The design was originally an anonymous sort of tree, but after my mother passed away in 2013, I asked if I could redo the design to reflect more of who she was and what she loved, to honor her in this mosaic. So I re-drew it as a Jacaranda, one of her favorites, and added day lilies, her favorite flower. She was so in love with these flowers, she joined an online community of other day lily enthusiasts who shared images of their favorites and traded their day lily seeds with each other. Many of them, including my mom, would experiment with hybridization to create their own unique species.

Mosaic detail

She left behind hundreds of plants, some in the ground, others in pots.  I took home about 35 of her favorites, which weren't flowering at the time, but began to bloom almost a year later. It became my daily ritual each morning to visit them with my cat and my coffee to see which ones had opened up that day. Each was a beautiful gift and I am so looking forward to spring when I get to see them again!

Some of Mom's gorgeous flowers.

One of my favorites

Kathy Temean features me on her blog, Writing and Illustrating

Ooh look!  I was interviewed by Kathy Temean for her terrific blog, Writing and Illustrating, which was posted today. Learn a little more about me, my stained glass mosaic illustrations process, and see lots and lots of photos of my art.  You can read it here.

Kathy’s blog is such a great resource for published and unpublished authors and illustrators. She posts information she gets from her interactions with editors and agents in the industry and shares thoughts and techniques of other writers and illustrators in the field. I always look forward to her weekly “Illustrator Saturday” posts, and now I am a feature! Check it out and leave a comment if you wish - we’d love to hear from you.  Thanks so much, Kathy!!

Thank you!

One of my favorite day lilies of my mom's

As 2014 ends, I want to thank all of you for following me and my art adventures here on my blog.  It's been a fun year and I can't wait to see what 2015 has in store.  Happy New Year!!




I loved watching them open up daily this summer

Betsy Bird on Fuse #8

Betsy Bird featured my book on her blog, A Fuse #8 Production, on the School Library Journal's web site, saying it's "one of the most beautiful Christmas children's books I've ever seen."  Read the post here.  Thanks so much, Betsy!

Book Reading at Granada Books

I had a really fun time at Granada Books' Festival of Lights this weekend!  Families arrived in their PJ's and ate popcorn while I read them my book, The Night Before Christmas.  Two of my mosaics hung behind me so I could also tell them about the artwork.  I gave the children postcards of my mosaic reindeer and then Santa Claus showed up! They got to sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas, and then he had candy and books to give them as they hopped off.  Several of the children showed Santa my postcard and asked him which reindeer were pictured (Dasher and Dancer, he said!)  It was pretty darn cute.