Art Zone Update

I've posted a little bit about the drop-in art program that I'm leading at an alternative high school in Shelton, WA, designed to provide outreach for homeless youth.  However, the program is open to all teens, and this school primarily serves at-risk youth, so we wanted to make sure that anyone who needs it feels welcome.

The program started in late September, and it took time to generate interest.  I've had a couple of consistent students, and more kids have noticed the class and become interested over the past couple of months.  But, because it takes place only on Fridays, and some kids only come one time, or once in a month, most are not going to become proficient with mosaic.  Instead, I've learned to set up some really simple projects that can be done quickly, without much effort.  Here is a jar-lid ornament project that was a hit, because kids could stop in, put glass scraps into the lid (over a cut out circle of No-Days adhesive), I used my heat gun to melt the adhesive.  When it cooled, they took it and continued with their day.

I do have a few students who took on a larger Day of the Dead project in October, and they have been diligently working on them over the past couple of months.  Again, the class is only on Fridays, sometimes they have other obligations and can't make it to class, and some students have only an hour or two to spend on it.  I wanted to post photos of the projects when they were complete, but here are progress shots instead:

This student is using tiny pieces because she loves the textured effect.

She is using only wheeled nippers to create her shapes.

This one is actually made by a young teaching assistant who brings a group of students to the class when she can.  She cut out eyes from a magazine and glued them under clear marbles.

This one is being done using indirect method.  The student is learning precision cutting with a glass cutter to make those concave shapes and curves.

This student is trying to use the glass scrap with as little cutting as possible.  She's gathering materials to collage the background.

One student has taken on a 3' x 5' mosaic mural for the school entryway as his senior project.  He has experience cutting glass, and he's quite good at it.

This is the mural as he was creating his cartoon.  The fused glass piece in the center was made years ago when there used to be a real glass art program at the school.  It is being incorporated into the mural as the focal point.  It will be surrounded by trees, ferns, pine cones, sun rays, and lettering.

This school doesn't have regular class on Fridays.  Teachers meet with students to help identify areas they need to improve, independent study takes place, there are often field trips with the outdoor club and organizations meet to work on their projects.  I am often asked to help with creative projects at the school, like decorations for their Haunted House event and a float for the winter parade (we'll all be walking in it tonight!)  Sometimes a group will bring lunch to my room to hang out with a friend who is working on their project.  On one of those occasions, a student mentioned that she wished she knew how to sew.  A couple of weeks later, I took sewing supplies and showed her how to make a little stuffed bird from fabric scraps.  She was so happy!  (Her bird was adorable, too.)

So, this has been a fantastic experience for me, so far.  I like being in an academic setting, working with young people, and hopefully sharing skills that will give some of them a new way to express themselves and a sense of empowerment.

Events for late Fall 2013

For years, I participated in holiday sales every weekend in November and December, and earned the bulk of my income making and selling small items this time of year.  Back then, I was Cosmic Blue Monkey Designs and I made art and crafts from recycled materials of all kinds.  My booth looked like the showcase of an arts collective with hand-bound journals, totes made of upholstery scraps, decorative pillows, sweater hats and dresses, and a variety of mosaic items.  Around 2010, my mosaic work had reached a higher level of quality, and I realized I had to focus and do one thing very well instead of dabbling in everything.  I also had to face the fact that the income I earned during the holidays barely covered my expenses, and I felt exhausted by the whole process of making and pricing and packing and setting up and tearing down, as well as being absent from all of the weekend holiday festivities my husband and daughter were enjoying.  It wasn't worth it.

This is the only photo I could find of me tending my booth, several years back.  I'm wearing one of my sweater dresses.

So, I went through a business transformation, re-branding, delving full force into mosaic, and enjoying and participating in the holiday season rather than desperately hawking my wares.  But, I still like to set up for one or two events in November.

First, I'll be attending the Isis International Women Arts Festival for the first time.  I am not sure what to expect, but it looks like there will be visual artists, speakers and performance all day at the Burke Museum on the final day of an exhibit of women artists.  It is only one day, October 27th.
Here is the best link I can find for more information: https://www.facebook.com/isiswomen

A favorite of mine is the POSSCA/Friends of the Library art show and sale.  This year it is November 2nd & 3rd.  Artists pay a commission and proceeds go to support a local arts organization (POSSCA) and the library system.  I love that this fundraiser allows me to earn some sorely needed income while helping to support important organizations.

I don't know if you can read this poster.  This is the only site I can find to link to: https://www.facebook.com/possca

After the POSSCA sale, I'll be taking my work to Swing Wine Bar for an exhibit that will run through November and December.  All of my art panels will be on display, and I plan to have a meet-the-artist event, which has yet to be scheduled.  I'll post when I pin it down.

I do find that participation in events like these gets me out of the hermitage periodically, and I do enjoy the chance to see friends and talk to the public about my work.  It helps me to feel like part of a community, and earning some extra money during the holidays really helps my family.  So, this is the season for prepping and scrambling to finish artwork, organizing what is available, and getting a booth together.  And then off I go to hawk my wares, just a little bit.

Learning new mosaic skills

This is the first post of my new, separate mosaic blog.  For years, I've kept a blog at cosmicbluemonkey.blogspot.com.  I started it as an online journal when our house was being built and became a chronicle of the process of homesteading in the country while raising a child and building a business as an artist.  But, sometimes I feel like the writing jumps back and forth between posts about beekeeping, gardening, and tending livestock to posts about art shows and mosaic learning experiences.  It makes sense to me, but I think creating a separate blog for art will give the writing more cohesion.

It has been a very slow year for my business, financially, but I've been busy with a wide variety of events.  I've given lectures and presentations, led group mosaic events, and participated in a number of exhibits.  I realized recently that this has really been a year of learning and growing as an artist.  While I intended to keep honing my particular style and technique, opportunities to learn new skills keep popping up, and I've been grabbing them by the horns.

In August, I spent four days in Hillsboro, OR with Lynn Adamo.  First, I attended her hammer & hardie workshop and learned to use a tool that had been sitting in my studio for a year.  The hammer & hardie is the original tool used to chop stone into small quadrangles for all of those ancient Roman and Turkish mosaic masterpieces.  It continues to be the tool of the masters in Italy.  After a captivating presentation by Rachel Saeger (rachelsagermosaics.com) at the mosaic summit in Lexington, KY, I ordered my own H&H, thinking I could teach myself to use it (though Rachel warned us in the lecture that it really requires hands-on instruction and lots of practice.)  And, I did find myself unable to break stone or tile with any consistency.

But, in two days of instruction on positioning and the correct inflection of the wrist, how to avoid muscle fatigue, and practice with just about every type of material, I was chopping stone and glass into little squarish shapes!  And I can't tell you how gratifying it is to open a piece of stone to find the surprises inside.  All of the tiny facets that emerge are so textural, organic, and interesting, and I am having fun piecing them into abstract designs that have a completely different look from anything else I've done.

During my stay with Lynn, I also helped to complete a large fish for her new installation in Astoria, using smalti.  Because the material is fairly expensive, I rarely work with smalti, a colorful handmade glass that is usually chopped into square chunks.  But I love the look of smalti and this chance to practice working with it, along with seeing the nuts and bolts of creating a large-scale mosaic that will be inlaid over a concrete pad, was very educational.  Lynn was meeting the challenges of creating the mosaic on mesh in sections that would ultimately fit together seamlessly, and I had the opportunity to be a witness as she brainstormed some of the glitches as they came up.  What a great experience to participate in a project like this without being the person responsible for the outcome!  All the fun with none of the stress.

That's me, working with Richard Davis.  Lynn Adamo took this photo and she has blogged about the whole project.

While chatting with Richard over smalti, the topic of pebble mosaic naturally came up.  I love the look and practical application of pebble mosaic, but I've been reluctant to add it to my repertoire because it is ONE MORE THING and I feel like I should be focusing more rather than less.  However, Richard offered to give me a basic overview of the process, and how could I pass that up?

So, last weekend, I headed to Whidbey Island and learned to make pebble mosaic.  The difficulties in making pebble mosaic include collecting stones, which is illegal in many places and expensive to buy them.  The other aspect is the weight of the slabs when they are made in forms, which is the method I learned.  The pebbles are placed in the base of the form, concrete is poured, and it is flipped over so that the pebbles become the surface.  Flipping and moving the finished mosaic requires a lot of strength.  

Here is the mosaic laid out in the form, before pouring concrete.  

Despite the foreseeable challenges involved in pebble mosaic, I'm very excited and grateful for this new information, and I can't wait to add to our garden walkways.  I started collecting stones from the creeks on our property yesterday.  All of it is black, and it's going to take many trips to the creek over many weeks to collect enough to get started, but I am undaunted.

The edge of my creek, full of smooth stones.

So, I find that this has been a year of acquiring new skills and honing the ones I had.  I expect winter to be an incubation period, as it almost always is, and I look forward to seeing what will emerge in the spring.