Metamorphosis; a Community Mural...and then some.

In 2021, I put out a call for mosaic butterflies with a goal of creating something with and for Monarch Sculpture Park in Tenino, WA. However, multiple obligations took precedence, both for me and John, the caretaker of the park. He took two other jobs teaching ceramics full time. I was selected/hired for a steady stream of commissions. We both have had our hands full, and the mosaic butterflies that were received were kept in storage.

So, in 2023, I decided to pursue a different community project that uses the butterflies in a new design. Since I'm going to be the featured artist for Olympia's fall Arts Walk festival, I am coordinating a mural to culminate during the event. This mural will have a figure emerging from a chrysalis as the centerpiece, designed to be a photo-op where visitors can become part of the mural. I'm toying with adding stylized trees on each side with open cocoons on the branches, as if all of these butterflies have recently emerged. The message is about transformation of societies and individuals, and the idea of becoming our most splendid, magnificent selves.

As of February 2023, I have not secured a wall or funding. I have been awarded fiscal sponsorship by The Field NYC, an organization that accepts tax deductible donations to support individual artists through crowdfunding. I have just launched my first fundraiser: https://app.thefield.org/home/donation/crowd/view/185/Community-Mural-Seed-Fund?fbclid=IwAR3SxFVp0vSdESPqL7jCtPfVuCc3ibTrDzbCfn2K5Aj_cE-9uhR6-ycjWRo

My hope is that the 501C3 status will encourage businesses to partner with me on this. In fact, for years, I've been wanting to establish a program for community art in the South Sound region. I'm getting ahead of myself, but I have a vision for the future that includes creating art for neighborhoods, schools and organizations through community engagement that will grow into a larger endeavor. Community art is empowering for the participants, brings people together across all barriers, and helps to beautify spaces. We can accomplish more with less resources by using this approach, and there is so much plain concrete all around us, I think we should be adding colorful art to as much of it as possible.

But for right now, I'm going to take a leap and see if we can get this one mural made. Suggestions and leads are very welcome. I'll be seeking grants to increase my ability to offer hands-on activities in Olympia from May to October. In the meantime, You Be You!

April Update: We have a wall!

This wall is on the back side of Lloyd's Automotive, facing 4th Ave., next to McCoy's Tavern. It is set back enough that pedestrians will be safe to pose in front of it and it is a stone's throw from my first ever community project, the Artesian Well (2012). 

April 9 update: Honed design, superimposed on the wall:

My Procreate skills are clunky, but I did my best to show how the mural will look on the wall of 425 4th Ave. in Olympia, WA.

May Update: 

The last weekend of April, I was at Olympia Spring Arts Walk leading the initial activity, having participants make the wings of the figure with recycled glass tiles. Turnout was fantastic, as was the weather, and we finished the wings over 2 days. Since then, I've been slowly tidying and filling the mosaic and applying for any grants I thing I might qualify for. So far, I've been able to pay for materials and admin through the fundraiser, but in order to offer workshops through summer, I really need to raise more funds. Otherwise, I have to take on commissions to keep my bills paid. Either way, the central figure will go up, along with as many butterflies as I receive (I have about 10 so far.)

Councilman Dontae Payne and his family

A snapshot of the activity at Arts Walk. 

Hands working together...

Sunkissed participant

Mixing Traditions: Stained Glass and Mosaic

Way back in 2001, I was working in a half-time position at my alma mater while also making arts and crafts. I worked in many different media, unable to settle on anything in particular. On a limited income, my approach was to transform discarded things into new things and I was always experimenting, using old books, fabric, magazines, housepaint... whatever I could get my hands on. I had been selling my work through sporadic shows at cafes and festivals, and even at little shops and galleries here and there.

When my landlord, who is also my friend, repaired the floor around the toilet in my rental, they gave me a box of mixed tiles and urged me to mosaic over it. They suspected I was going to enjoy mosaic, and they couldn't be more on target. I LOVED the process of breaking pieces, then gluing them into a new configuration. I was hooked!

I don't even know how this photo is in my computer. We only had film cameras back then, and I don't have the original.

From this point on, my favorite thing has been to bust hard material into smaller pieces and rearrange them to make a design. For me, there is nothing more cathartic than turning something broken into something beautiful. 

The internet was brand new back then and very few of us had computers. I used the library to find some basic how-to books and I joined a Yahoo-group and met some other people who were also exploring a passion for gluing things to other things. I'm sure I came across information about traditional mosaic technique, but it really didn't interest me. I was just having fun, chopping tile and glass and sticking it back together, willy-nilly.

This is early work, after learning how to make basic cuts with stained glass, but before gaining skills with placement.

In 2009, I attended my first American Mosaic Summit. My mind was blown. The level of artistry in the work I saw was unlike anything I had seen before. All around me, fellow mosaic artists were discussing materials, tools, approaches and techniques. They spoke about "andamento" and "sdoppiomento"; concepts that were elusive to me. They discussed "rules" and "mosaic grammar." Honestly, my gut reaction was to reject much of it. I did not like the term "rules." I was having fun chopping things up and sticking them to things and all of this new information didn't sound fun at all.

What I was excited about was the functionality of mosaic. I knew what I wanted to pursue was mosaic that would be integrated into living spaces; backsplashes, floors, surfaces, windows, murals. The idea that I could create art that could be WALKED ON inspired me. That it could be a privacy screen for a medical clinic was enthralling. So, what I worked toward was proficiency with installations. I learned about adhesives, substrates, grout, moisture-barriers, freeze-thaw cycles. In time, I was installing commissions in homes, businesses and public spaces.

Swing Wine Bar: My first commercial commission in 2007

However, those "rules" had surreptitiously crept into my style. In 2013, I reworked that "Blue Moon" mosaic:

Ten years later, I would change a few things, but I think the contrast between this one and the earlier version illustrates my point.

Over two decades after discovering mosaic, I have narrowed my style. It is characterized by bold colors and use of grout lines as a design element, often interconnecting different symbols within the image. I also work in a photorealistic style, depicting light and shadow using the values in the pieces in a more organic, painterly way. My favorite material is stained glass, and I have become really adept at cutting precise shapes and using them to make certain visual elements "pop." 

Stained glass mosaic mural for private home inspired by kelp and octopus imagery.

I am not trained in a traditional approach. I am still not using "andamento" the way classically trained mosaic artists do. I'm self-taught, and I've incorporated some of those ancient principles, but I also pull from some leaded glass practices, along with incorporating folk art, Art Nouveau, and any other concepts that are interesting to me, including tile design.

This past year, I started thinking about a new course/class that addresses ways of setting stained glass mosaic to create a sense of flow and direction. I'll be exploring how traditional mosaic grammar can be used to inform this type of patterning, and how stained glass offers a departure into different territory because of the malleability of scoring and cutting larger pieces in precise shapes. There are some methods for placement that help determine how the viewer's eye follows contours, or creates dynamic energy, or a peaceful calm.

Notice how pieces follow the contours of the wings, expanding and contracting. And how the radiating pattern conveys a strong energy emanating from the central point of the bird.

There are also some really fun ways to make patterns using precision-cut stained glass into familiar patterns like herringbone, basketweave, chevrons, and into MidCentury designs that I'll address.

I'll be teaching a one-day class about this topic at the Glass Craft & Bead Expo in Las Vegas at the end of March. The link is HERE, if you are considering attending. This will be my first time at the event, and I'm very excited to find out what all the fuss is about. My friend Carrie Strope has been teaching and vending at the Expo for over 13 years, and she says it's amazing.

Another opportunity to learn about Patterning in Stained Glass Mosaic is coming soon, so stay posted!

UPDATED LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES:

Pattern and Flow in Stained Glass Mosaic is now an online course through Mosaic Arts Online! This is a 30-minute version, where I demonstrate the concepts through lecture, sketching and demo, and you can practice each step on your own before moving to the next step, returning as many times as you need to (forever). This link is to the single course, but there's also a bundle available with the Precision Cutting Stained Glass course, which pairs well.

And if you are heading to the SAMA/SGAA conference in Buffalo, NY this September (2023) you have the option of taking the Pattern and Flow in Stained Glass Mosaic workshop as a live, full-day class. Find that info HERE.