Nine years is a long time

I just realized that I have had this little blog for nine years now. It has suffered extended periods of neglect while I flirted with other social media platforms (you really must believe me when I say I am not that fickle in my offline life), but it has persevered, and I am back with a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates, hoping it will forgive my transgressions.

I deleted my Twitter account, because after about the same amount of time, I couldn't figure out why I should be on there. Twitter moves at the speed of light, and I....well, I don't.

Facebook was my go-to for several years, but now it has become a "pay to play" platform. (Posts on my business page will only reach 2 - 6%, on average, of the 3,249 people who have Liked the page unless I "boost" my posts with cold hard cash.) I can't really afford not to use the Facebook page because of the search engine presence it contributes, but it becomes less useful as a way of connecting with people who are interested in my art.

So here I am, reevaluating the slow, verbose blog. The outlet that lets me - no, expects me - to run off at the mouth. And I have decided that all things considered, I like it that way.

I have spent the last few months collecting photos of vignettes that are inspiring, and will perhaps one day become a mosaic. Here are just a few:

I hope you'll follow along with the blog if you have an interest in my art. You can use a blog reader app like Feedly or Panda, or just enter your email in the box in the column on the right and each post will be delivered to your email inbox. If you're worried about too much email from me, see paragraph one above...

And y'know, there is a comment option on this blog - we can still talk and discuss things, just like we used to on Facebook. Ah, good times...

Inspiration and nostalgia

We get to a certain age and we all experience a certain nostalgia – for all sorts of random things that remind us of good times had. Some of those things are places (the Indianapolis Museum of Art), some are sounds (the squeak of basketball shoes on a court), some are edible (hominy – don’t judge). I think it’s good to have so many things to look back upon with fondness. It means I’ve done at least a few things right.
One of the things I remember with fondness is the piano room I refurbished myself when we lived in Knightstown, IN. I taught piano lessons and needed a place where the chaos of my elementary and middle school age kids could be shut out.  I replaced the section of ceiling that collapsed, stripped and replaced wallpaper, replaced the wood trim, refinished the wood floors and installed french doors. My husband was the destructor – tearing out all the old stuff that needed to go, and I installed all the new stuff. When it was done, it was gorgeous. This was also the home where I built an organic herb nursery. I have photos but they’re buried in the storage unit, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. We only lived in that house for 3 years and you’d think I would have cried when we moved, but the community was so hateful, especially to my children, that I was actually relieved.
That was nearly 20 years ago. I had a little bit of wallpaper leftover, and I have carried it with me through 5 moves because I loved it so much. I have spent all that time wondering what I might do with it. I think now that I will use it as the inspiration for a mosaic.

As lovely as it is, I think it needs a bunny, don’t you?
I love the pink cosmos,














the bluebird, but especially, the sage blossoms:

Sage blossoms are really blue, but they almost appear lit from within. They are really magical.
So anyway, today I spread out the sheet of leftover wallpaper and remembered all the scents, sights and sounds of the herb gardens I have had over the last 30 years, and decided to embark on this.
Then I left the studio, stopping at Whole Foods to pick up butter on the way home.
And outside the front door they had precious, little sage plants. So of course I brought one home.

All is right with the world.

What a wiseguy … emphasis on wise

I’m going to print this LARGE and post it on the wall of my studio.
Waiting for inspiration before making art is like waiting until you lose weight before you start an exercise program.
You’ve put the cart before the horse. The effort has to come first.
It’s not until you’re in the studio, puttering with your materials, looking at the pictures you saved and the art you’ve already made, that you think “Oh! That’s a cool idea, but what if …”
What are you waiting for? Get in there!

Technorati Tags: inpiration,studio,Chuck Close

Rut roh.

I’m in a rut again.
I do this every now and then – get stuck on a subject. I can’t explain it, and frankly, I don’t think I really learn much from it, which is too bad.
But I guess I’m stuck on dragonflies again.
Although, to be fair, what really prompted this piece is not dragonflies per se, but a poem I adore, by a writer I adore – H. H. Munro. He was born in 1870, and his writing reminds me a bit of Oscar Wilde. The best part – his bizarre beginnings:

Hector Hugh Munro was born 18 December, 1870 in Akyab, Burma, son of Scotsman Charles Augustus Munro, an inspector-general in the Burma police and his mother, Mary Frances (née Mercer) who died in a tragic accident in England with a runaway cow in 1872.    (from onlineliterature.com)

Isn’t that delicious?
Anyway, the poem – Overheard on a Saltmarsh, is a favorite of mine for a couple of reasons. It describes a goblin begging a nymph to give him her beads. Reason #1 that I love it – it takes me back to childhood when my favorite poem was Nine Little Goblins by James Whitcomb Riley. Do click on the link and go read it, and understand that my love of all things bizarre and macabre goes back to my earliest days. Reason #2: the nymph say “No.” Plain and simple. And she means it! No whining or cringing from the goblin – just “No” in a “don’t be silly” kind of way. Here’s the poem and image that accompanied it when I first discovered it (h/t to Eve Lynch for that!):

Now, when a dragonfly first emerges from the egg, it is called a nymph. So see? It’s not really so random after all!
The design – which includes a full moon and bare branched tree:

And the “green glass beads on a silver ring”

For the row of beads on the top of the upper wings I used nickel beading wire, ending in a curlicue at each end, since this isn’t really a “ring”.

That is silver leaf under the beads, which makes the transparent stained glass under them really shine in the picture above.

Technorati Tags: H. H. Munro,dragonflies,Overheard on a Saltmarsh,poem,Saki,goblins,James Whitcomb Riley,mosaic,glass

Unfurled mosaic mural beginnings

I mentioned on my Faceboook page the mosaic mural I’m participating in – Unfurled designed by Lin Schorr Mixed Media Mosaics – and I see that I never mentioned it here!  Huh.  I have tried so hard to pull myself together and get more organized about sharing information, but I have reverted to my scatterbrained ways. 
Anyway, here is the design Lin came up with, which is being divvied up among something like 50 artists.  The completed design will be 8’ tall by 13’ wide.

Currently, artists (myself included) are working on the section on the left.  I am assigned the flower petal on the far left.  The color scheme for the petals is to be pink/tangerine/yellow. 
Searching for inspiration, I kept coming back to look at the images I have collected over the years of the tulips, from centuries past and modern day, that have very pronounced striping.  I have been fascinated with the tulips that caused a major financial panic in Europe in the 1600s – as much for the bizarre behavior they inspired as for the flowers themselves.  Tulips were introduced to Europe in the century before, but in Holland an industry developed around their cultivation which produced a bubble like the dot com bubble or the housing bubble, although on an even more ridiculous scale!   


At the height of the mania, the Viceroy tulip at right apparently sold for 3,000 – 4,500 guilders.  A skilled craftsman, by contrast, only earned 300 guilders per year.   

I love these stripes,  but I was concerned about being too literal with the design.  In part because Lin has come up with an overall design that looks to me very Jacobean (click here to see some examples from the web), although the project information says it is Art-Nouveau inspired.  I can see that influence too.  Both are very stylized botanicals with lots of curves.  I wanted to be sure to incorporate lots of curviness because of that (and because I want to, dammit).  So here is the beginning of the petal:

And because of my fear of commitment, I have only very lightly sketched in a guide with pencil.  Many of the artists have added bold black marker guidelines to follow, but what if I change my mind?!?!?!  I tend to find that I like the finished piece better when it evolves organically anyway, so I’ll just let it flow and see what we end up with.
I plan to do the pinks first, then fill in with the yellow and oranges, but I couldn’t resist popping some in just to get a feel for how it would look.

Technorati Tags: Unfurled,mosaic mural,Lin Schorr Mixed Media Mosaics,petal,tulips,tulip mania,Art Nouveau,Jacobean

A mood, a memory, a mystery.

What happened?  What day is it? 
*Sigh*
This fall has gotten away from me.  I had plans to get quite a lot done in the studio before Christmas, but life intervened.
My youngest son, whom we have seen very little of in the last two years, spent the last couple of weeks of October with us.  It was fabulous – we showed him all around our area since he had never been here before, and soaked up every possible minute of our time with him, knowing that it might be a long time again before we had another chance. 
Then the first of November my mother had knee replacement surgery, and I spent 3 weeks in Indiana caring for her until she could handle things on her own. 
And of course, Thanksgiving food comas throw everyone off their game for a few days.
So today I was determined to get back into the studio and do at least something.
Being particularly unenthused with the project I had going before I left for Indiana, I put it aside and started a very small project.  I’m using a ceramic tile 8” x 8” as a substrate.  I really don’t like working that small, but that’s what I had on hand.
This one is inspired by The Wexford Carol, which is one of my favorites.  I had never heard of it until I bought the Winter Solstice Vol. 4 CD ever so long ago.  The version on that album is instrumental, and listening to it on quiet nights in front of the Christmas tree, I always imagine a walk through a snowy park.  See if you can picture it  (you’ll have to follow the link to watch it on YouTube, it won’t let me embed it) -

Listening to this song, I also remember the first time I realized that you can ‘hear’ snow fall; feeling as if the bare tree branches are reaching out to catch the snowflakes; the feeling of flying through a crisp night on ice skates at the pond across from my house where I grew up.  I remember the magic of the season, Christmas cookies galore, my kids on their absolute worst behavior of the whole year in the weeks before Christmas (I never could explain that).
Anyway, I found a few photos to inspire me:

	My favorite – I love the misty look in the distance.  This one captures the mood and mystery of the song in my experience.
	Love the fence and the beautifully dressed trees.
	Park benches and street lights – not quite the mood, but still lovely.

I discovered that the white carrara marble, when riven, sparkles like snow.   How cool is that?  I’ll use a lot of that for the background, but of course I started with the trees:



There will be 3 more smaller ones set in the background.  I then plan to put in the snow with some blue and purple shading and a snowy looking grey/blue sky.

Technorati Tags: winter,snow,The Wexford Carol,winter solstice,Christmas carols,bare trees,mosaic,smalti,marble

The more things change….

On a day in which had a many tiresome hours to kill, I turned to my shelf of art books and began rummaging.  I settled on William Morris, Artist, Craftsman, Pioneer by R. Ormiston and N. M. Wells.  I have skimmed this one several times, but I set to really reading  it today.  I was reminded how much I align myself with Morris’ ideas on beauty, art, craftsmanship, and the destructive capabilities of industrialization.
Morris is often characterized as an ‘anti-industrialist’, but that really isn’t accurate.  After all, he started a design company that utilized mechanized processes to produce wallpapers, upholstery fabrics, tapestries and carpets on a large scale.  But it is true that Morris had much to say about the dehumanization of industrialization.  It wasn’t with an eye toward halting progress, but toward bringing back the dignity of a day’s hard work for those who labored day in and day out to keep the gears turning.  He believed that Victorian industrialists were quite comfortable with the idea of using up human lives like fuel for their forges, without regard to the illness and misery those lives suffered as a result.  The authors state “[H]e became part of a movement that swept through Europe.  The rise in industrial fortunes had brought with them a nascent resentment and suffering of those on whose backs growth was being made; the Victorian Age was a capitalistic bludgeon, creating iniquities as quickly as it created wealth.”
A capitalistic bludgeon.  Wow.  That rings so true for me.  Every time I step inside a Pier 1 and see their simplistic mosaic tables and mirrors (no doubt crafted by 9 year olds in China) with a price tag that wouldn’t even cover my supplies to replicate, I die a little bit inside.  I know that a large percentage of the population doesn’t know the difference in quality between those mosaic pieces and my wall art, and that it is my job to educate them.  I know, too, that I could create wall art with larger pieces and cheaper glass in order to lessen my expenses (although not enough to be competitive with Pier 1 and other such retailers).
But if I were to try to compete with retailers whose manufacturers have access to slave wages and cheaply produced materials, my art wouldn’t be as beautiful or as soulful. 
Morris writes “There is a great deal of sham work in the world, hurtful to the buyer, more hurtful to the seller, if only he knew it; most hurtful to the maker.”
The more things change, the more they stay the same, huh?

Technorati Tags: William Morris,Arts & Crafts Movement,industrialization,cheap labor,art

Breathtaking!

I have been an avid admirer of Maestro Guilio Mennosi’s work for many years, but have never had the opportunity to see it in person, to really examine the mixture of materials and fineness of workmanship.  I still haven’t.  But I have found the next best thing – breathtaking close-ups of his work on the Mosaic Art Now blog.
Here’s a little peek to whet your appetite – run over to MAN to see the rest of it!

Technorati Tags: Mosaic Art Now,mosaic,glass,pearls,Lego blocks,Guilio Mennosi

Stunning portraits by Atsuko Laskaris

I am usually most captivated by mosaics by other artists that approximate what I am striving for in my own.  There is one hearty exception, and that is Atsuko Laskaris.  I have the utmost respect for her portraiture work, even though I haven’t the slightest interest in ever creating a portrait myself.  The depth and beautiful light play are really astounding in her works.  The one below, Soloist, is my favorite.

See a close up and in progress shot of this on the Mosaic Art Now blog.  There are several more astounding pieces as well as a short bio of the artist on that post as well.  Go check it out!

Technorati Tags: stained glass,Atsuko Laskaris,Mosaic Art Now,Soloist

Wish I’d though of it!

This is a marvelous post by Ken and Paper.  He proposes a Museum of Awkward Beginnings.  It’s brilliant!  I would become a sustaining member, give tours, even work the gift shop!  My favorite room would be the Angry Fit Exhibit.  It’s all about making you understand that even those famous masters of every medium started off as amateurs.  They made some crap too.  It’s ok to make crap – learn from it and move on!
I have mentioned before that I used to focus my creativity on music.  I played classical piano: Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Debussy among my favorites.  My hero and idol was Vladimir Horowitz.  (OK, this was a long time ago!)  I had many of his recordings that I listened to over and over again, certain that I was and always would be inadequate - longing to put the same power behind the music, to possess the same finesse on the arpeggios, command the same range of volume.  And then I saw a live broadcast of one of his concerts.  Oh.  My.  God.  He made mistakes!  The pieces that I played myself and knew inside and out – he flubbed them!  Not huge flubs, little flubs:  a missed note here, a hitch in the tempo there.  All through the concert!  He was human!  Hallelujah! 
I learned so much from that single concert that I have applied to many areas of my life, but it has been most useful in my art.  Yes, I can create a piece of crap.  And I can throw it away and do better next time.  Or maybe not, maybe the next one is a piece of crap too.  It’s still ok, because I know I’m learning what not to do, and that is as useful as what to do. 
Apply that to your own art and see how liberating it is!  You’ll never go back to the stress over continual perfection.

Technorati Tags: Ken and Paper,perfection,mistakes,piano

II Mostra Mosaico Curitibano 2010

 

I’m doing more drooling over other people’s work than constructing my own because of the insanely busy season at the gallery, so I thought I’d just share some more of my great finds with you.

From the II Mostra Mosaico Curitibano 2010:

 

Fernanda Czelujinski and
       Fernando Varella

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Schandra Julia Zmijevski

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Celita Alberti

 

 

 

 

 

Think of it as inspiration for tomorrow!

Erik A Frandsen 2008 'Cut Flowers', Venetian glass mosaic collection, AROS Museum of Art, Aarhus Denmark

Erik A Frandsen 2008 'Cut Flowers', Venetian glass mosaic collection, AROS Museum of Art, Aarhus Denmark
Originally uploaded by hanneorla

I am just floored by this mosaic. Especially fascinating to me is the fuzzy, out of focus quality of the background.

Wow.

In the midst of a creative logjam!

I’m SO not complaining! Please understand that my greatest fear is that one day I will wake up and have absolutely no idea what to do next. I think that having so many ideas wanting out all at once is a much better problem to have!
And the fun part is the sources of some of the inspirations. I’m a pretty visual person in general, but the latest idea wanting out was the result of an aroma. When I was in 6th grade, I had a ballpoint pen with perfumed ink. Now I know that perfumed ink is a classic tool in writing the billet doux, but when I was in 6th grade? Pfft!!! That perfume was solely for MY benefit! No wonder I didn’t have any friends – who wants to be associated with someone who sniffs her science tests?
Anyway, in 6th grade I also had……a pocket folder whose cover was a line drawing with a very 70s Mod, almost psychedelic, design. A waterfall, maybe a unicorn? (surely not!) It came with a set of markers so I could bring it to life. The perfumed ink of the ballpoint pen and the design on that folder are very closely related in my memory, so when I caught a whiff of that same aroma as the perfumed ink, I instantly wanted to create something based on the design of that folder! What triggered this? Lubriderm lotion. Seriously, I couldn’t make this stuff up! It smells just like that ballpoint pen.
Meantime, I have something that I really need to work on first. I have committed to donate a mosaic. Lin Schorr, goddess of the public mosaic project, is coordinating a mosaic auction to benefit Doctors Without Borders. It is to be a small piece (thank goodness!) and of course I haven’t started it yet. But today at least I decided on the design. Because the benefit is for Doctors Without Borders, it made sense to me that it be based on a picture from a country outside of the US. My daughter was in Zanzibar last April and took some of the most amazing pictures of sunsets on the water, I decided to combine two of them, abstract them a bit, and see what we get. Here are the two pics:
The sailboat picture was cropped and lightened a bit, and in the design I will crop the other as well. Next post, I’ll show you what I end up with.
Oh…..I almost forgot to mention that I have a design drawn out (very large) to start a mosaic based on this photo:

And another to do in smalti, also drawn out and ready to go, based on my dreams of water.

Baby, baby, baby….light my way

A couple of posts back I mentioned the octopus chandelier at the Portsmouth Museum of Fine Art’s exhibit Art at the Edge. I can’t explain why I thought this was just made of awesome, and most everything else was uninteresting (or maybe just trying too hard). Not ideal pictures, but I wasn’t in charge of them. They are stills from a video, and unfortunately that’s the best we can do, but you get the idea!


Another song lyric for a title! I promise you this one is right – anyone know it?
UPDATE:  I just found a link to Adam Wallacavage’s website – with tons more octopus chandeliers!!!!!  Check it out!  http://www.adamwallacavage.com/octo/index.html

Um…yeah. Better luck next week.

This has been a lost week, more or less. Between the nice weather earlier in the week (requiring that I go outside and get my hands dirty) and the tax filing deadline *ouch!*, I have only come into the studio long enough to make a mess of things. I have papers stacked around, glass bits scattered all over the tables (and floor), cat hair collecting in the corners….ugh.
So in other words, I have nothing to show you (because I’m pretty sure you don’t want to see the cat hair tumbleweeds). However, whenever I want to look at some cool mosaic work I go to Flickr. This group on Flickr has work from lots of artists you may have heard of, and a few you probably haven’t, but it’s all very inspirational. Go take a peek – you won’t be sorry!
Since I’m working on a glass on glass (GOG) piece currently, I thought I’d share one with you that was created by Victor Nunnally who is renowned for his GOG. This is just one of the awesome pieces in the Flickr group.

A Mosaic Sea of Life by Victor Nunnally

Kim Wozniak is my new hero.

My mosaic friends on Facebook had a discussion yesterday about being a full time artist vs. working a day job and fitting it in.  Of course, women never seem to discuss their lives without bringing up the idea of guilt at some point.  Toward the end of the discussion, Kim Wozniak had this to say: 

Work 9 to 5 = guilt for not being there for your kids. Stay home mom = guilt for not contributing financially. Be an artist = guilt for both. Get over it girls! Life is not about guilt and contribution it is about dreams and nuturing and creation. Be a mom, be an artist, be a partner, be happy.

I can’t even comment on that.  There is absolutely nothing else to add to it.  :)
Kim is the owner of a mosaic supply store called Wit’s End Mosaic – check it out here.
And in other random news – the oil paint is finally dry to the touch!  Only took 25 days.  bleh.  And I’m giving myself a Christmas break – I may not post again until after the first of the year, but definitely not untl after Christmas.  In fact, I’m not likely to even work on anything in the studio.  Not because I have too much to do, but because that’s what I want.  So there.  :) 
Hope you all enjoy the holidays to the fullest, with no stress and no guilt, because after all “life… is about dreams and nuturing and creation.” 

Was I on vacation?

Jeez-O-Pete!  Where have I been?  You’d think I might have gone on vacation, but I’m pretty sure I never even left the house this week except to run errands.  Huh.  Missing time again, eh?  Seems to be a regular occurrence.  I think about once every 3 or 4 months I get internet overload and just wink out for a bit.  I feel better now, thanks.
And so what have we been up to this week, boys and girls?  Have you done any adventurous art?  Have you stretched yourself beyond what you are comfortable doing?  Is there something you have made this week that you have the nerve to dislike?  I can happily say Yes!  I have been working on an acrylic painting.  Acrylics are relatively new to me.  I am not comfortable with the paint itself.  It dries much too quickly to suit me (which is a little odd, since I come from a background of watercolor painting and have yet to try my hand at oils).   But with watercolors, they can be blended even after they are dry by adding more water.  Not so effective with acrylics.  I was planning to share with you the progress on it so far, but I’ve changed my mind.  I will wait until at least the next painting session to see whether it will turn out acceptable or whether it will be a learning experience that ends up in a closet. 
Meanwhile, I have started the marble on the Oak and Acanthus mosaic.   Not much to look at yet, but here you go, such as it is… 





And after a hike through the woods with my husband and camera, I have a couple of photos that I really think I’d like to do something with, although I’m not sure just what.  Take a peek:

Reflections of trees in the moving water of a brook	Leaves under water
Trees reflected in the still water behind a beaver dam	Hemlock and beech

Dragonfly redux

I have been commissioned to make another dragonfly mosaic, this one smaller, and “fun, airy and light”. This leaves me wondering how much whimsy I could/should use. I did some preliminary sketches last night, but haven’t quite settled on a style for it. The client has requested smalti, which I tend to think of as more formal. I will need to break out of that mindset so that it doesn’t turn out stuffy. Below are some photos I pulled from Google images to inspire me. (These are of course, other people’s copyrighted designs, they are just for inspiration.) I’m loving the colors, but I think I’ll want more realism in my piece, so we’ll see where this runs.
As I was looking at these pictures, I was thinking that they seemed dreamlike, and I found myself wondering what dragonflies dream about? I think that will be the idea behind the piece. What do you think?