thanks jess!

I had this "Ball" jar idea for years but never moved on it.  Jess, my intern that I introduced in last post is the most flowery flower person I have ever met.  She talked about flowers so much that I thought that during her 9 weeks with me, I should work on a floral something.  This is the result.  I had a lily made as a sample for a class so I knew one flower that I would use and hydrangea makes a nice blue bottom for the bouquet. Snap dragons were Jess's idea and I love them too.

This isn't framed yet but I will put it up on Saatchi as soon as it is.  The blue glass is over half an inch deep.  "Billet MOSAIC" just cracks me up and it is my favorite signature tile right now.

 I can't wait to see it framed.  Until it sells, it will be loved in my home.

I was trying to work on the canning jar bouquet and a beetle at the same time.  Now I am all about the scarab.  It's going to be an Egyptian thing and I can almost see the end.  I am hoping to work a favorite movie, "Matrix" into it too.  We'll see.  The Matrix part is another thing that has been simmering for a while.  I might be too ambitious to think this might be done by the 26th when I start another residency.  Hmmmmm...

YESSSSSS, summmer!

The PPI/Lower Dauphin project is now finished.  Thanks so much to Pennsylvvania Council on the Arts for the help in funding these projects.  The last mosaic was an abstract and the catch was that I had to involve all FIVE of the elementary schools in our district.  Crazy!  I had some kids cut, some kids assemble, and used mosaic tape to prepare the bits for travel to the next school.  The top photo is what the elementary peeps came up with, the bottom photo is what we assembled the parts into.  The finish was predominately done by  a Lower Dauphin teacher and myself.  This is as cheerful as the rest of the five mosaics in the project.  I feel like a boss because there was some unbelievable hurdles in this project.  Thankfully, the Lower Dauphin teachers were extremely flexible and supportive but wow, those kids really stepped up to bat.  I started out thinking PPI/Lower Dauphin would be a dream project and it ended up even cooler than I had imagined.  As usual, all the stymies just prepared me for the next big thing so yeah, I'm ready.  Bring it, Universe!

The end of May, I took on an intern.  Jess has been just what I needed to kick my ass into gear.  Sure, we are doing a lot of menial things like cleaning and other stuff that needs done on a regular basis, but we are also working on a collaborative mosaic, a video of a separate mosaic, and trying to land the next big thing.  This summmer will be hot for us... in a good way.

rolling with it

Whew!  It has been a busy year so far.  Almost all of the six Lower Dauphin mosaics for the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute are done.  All three pictured below were dreams come true.  I thought there was a chance that I would get to do the tree one in a school someday but to do a pineapple and a wave in a Pennsylvania school was a stretch.  I believe you can click on the pineapple to see some details.  The teachers that I have been working with for these three have given me feedback and I think I am probably the luckiest woman alive.

In the wave and pineapple, there was one group of kids and their teacher that worked on making tiles.  They handed the tiles off to another group of kids with a different teacher to assemble the tiles and finish the mosaic.

I just wish you could see this in person.  I bet this is going to make some kids at PPI really happy.  It's kinda crazy how it works in schools.  The entire day is made up of 40 minute periods.  So whatever is going on, changes hands every 40 minutes.  Insane! 

The trees were done by middle school peeps.  I cannot be prouder of these guys.  Normally if we fuse and mosaic in the same residency, it is a four week process.  These guys did it in two.  The photo below is ALL the kids involved.  They were small groups of 4-15 kids at a time.  Their tiles were just as cool as the high school kids' tiles. 

So now I am back in my shop, just in the layout stage of a new mosaic of my own.  All I know for sure is that it is about a beetle and synchronicity.  Life is good.

crazy how this works

For real, how does this stuff happen?  First, I will tell you some fantastic news, then I will tell you the strange turn of events that led up to it.  Good news is:  I am teaching this CLASS!  Info here:  Go ahead.  Click. D&L Artglass

Right now, I am so busy,  that I wasn't thinking about teaching.  I do residencies but that is not teaching.  Then, a few weeks back, I discovered that one of my favorite glass artists, Brian Blanthorn, had died in 2012. He kept a lot of his processes secret and I was wondering if his glass partner and wife would ever share them.  I thought about my own work and the fact that I am willing to share knowledge if asked.  Still, there are things I do that nobody is asking about.  Sharing technique elevates art universally. I don't have time in residencies to do fussy details and when I have time to get glass fancy, I'm alone.

Here is the weird part.  Shortly after this thought train, I got an email asking if I would travel to teach a class.  You know how the Universe works... the inquiry came from the place I most love to travel to - MY GRANDSON'S HOME TOWN!  Of late, Rob and I have been lamenting the fact that we're both so busy that we don't know when we will get out to Denver. Now we know.  It is still contingent on having enough people sign up to take it so if you know anybody that would be interested, please share this info!  While I am not comparing myself to the amazing Blanthorn, I do know a lot of tricks that can make 2D work look more dimensional. That's my thing.  Now it could be YOUR thing too. 😜

no, for real

You never saw this coming, did you?  I wrote a freaking book!   Yeah, it's a REAL book.  OMG, this is surreal.  It hasn't really sunk in yet.  I thought I finished it a few years ago but then there is this little thing called editing.  My daughter informed me that I had to call my pile of papers a MANUSCRIPT, not a book. 

Judging from the questions I get, I often think that people have the wrong impression of what it is really like to chase a dream.  I try to answer questions as honestly as possible but back in the middle of 2010, I decided to just tell you everything.  A lot of people have told me they would like to see in my head.  Well, this is as close as I can get to showing you.  This is MY story in MY language... at least a few years of my journey.  My hope is that maybe my ramblings about my journey might help you on yours.

If you DO read this book and it helps you, please recommend it to a friend.  I'm not really sure how this will all work out because my mission is to sell my art.  I have to figure out how a book fits in.  The link to purchase is here  https://www.createspace.com/5803441  It is 13 smackaroos.  I will keep you posted.  Right now, I will try to wrap my head around the fact that I wrote a book.  Life is good.  What a ride.

looking forward

looking forward (30 x 48 inches plus frame)

OK, the very first residency I did was in Warrior Run, a school that really values the arts in every form because a lot of their admin is comprised of former art teachers.  The whole school has a wonderful feel to it.  Besides their own art from classes and residencies, they were really proud to show me their art collection purchased from various professional artists. I was impressed. 

 Each year, the graduation class does fund raisers to make money to purchase an art commission that will be added to the collection for future students to enjoy.  I was so proud that they chose me to commission art from this year. 

They wanted their logo and name somewhere within the design, so I chose to put it smack in the middle.

Then I continued on with all my stripes, dots and bubbles that make something billet.

 

Blue glass and blue glass and blue glass.  Life is good.  Thanks Warrior Run!

grateful billet

The guy that gave us all the wood for my floor (previous blog post) did not ask for anything and I am so unbelievably grateful.  That's why I decided to make him a mosaic.  Our mutual acquaintance said he likes Grateful Dead. 

 

Now, in spite of the fact that I am constantly preaching to people that they need to quit worrying about what other people think, I did a lot of worrying about this mosaic.  I worried about people thinking less of me because the piece was almost entirely just a copy of someone else's work (a Grateful Dead album cover.)  I worried that the signature took up a significant percentage of the mosaic's space and people might think I am arrogant... even though the signature that I decided on could not possibly be cut smaller.

A simple mosaic that was to be a gift to make me (the giver) and someone else happy became the source of a lot of baggage.  I am trying to be aware of how often I do this so that I can redirect my thoughts.

When I copy, I do save myself some time in design, but I make it far harder for myself in craftsmanship.  I mean, making a skull is one thing, but to make exactly THAT skull... those zig zag cuts in 1/4 inch glass!  Working on another little thank you right now.  No copying, just easy breezy fun.







steal your face

Just working on a little mosaic.  I hope to have this done shortly.

All right, is it weird that I often have the signature figured out long before the rest of the mosaic?  I guess it is. 

 



always working 33 x 33 inches

I was beginning to wonder if I would EVER finish this,  After I started, I took two weeks off to work in Muncy High, then took over three weeks off to work on my floor.  This mosaic was a bugger.  The shape of the frame seemed to throw me too.  I can't remember if the gear idea or the crow and moon idea came first,  Then, I have NO idea how they got mashed up together.  But as I went along, the mosaic became about my life at that time. It usually does.

 

One of my favorite parts is these resistors.  I had to make this tile twice as I did for almost EVERY feature in this mosaic.  I trashed a moon, light bulb, and crow too. Yeah... resistance, all right!

Of course, that raven (or crow?) is me... awake in the middle of the night, trying to figure out whatever I am working on.  In this case, it was trying to figure out what to combine to get different metal colors, the glass key, what colors of dichroic would make the right electric streak?.

 

Even though the mosaic started out steampunk, it kind of veered toward working things out.  Still semi-steampunk, the key and light bulb were also, YES, symbolic.  I need a fire lit under my ass sometimes too, especially when I struggle this much.  I have a whole set of beetles that I made for this mosaic and didn't use.

Way before I started this mosaic, I bought watch parts (below) to put on my frame. They came from punksrus on etsy.

SO happy now that it's done.  It has a big thumbs up from my fam, which makes me smile.  "Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.”  said Lennon or Coelho.  I say-Even when it doesn't always look like it, things are always working.

 













comfortable

Ah ha ha!  This sea witch is DONE.  At 36 x 20 inches, "comfortable ( the fushigi life )" was way harder than I thought but a good experience regardless.  In the past few years, when I complete a mosaic, I give you the skinny about what's what in the thought process of how it came to be.  This one was so personal that I think I will let it remain personal... for now.  I will let you see what you will in this work. 

Tomorrow, I start on a new one.  I still am not sure if I want to go steampunk or ferns and fungus.  I think I am lichen the ferns and fungus though.  Fiddleheads?

back in the saddle again

 Feels SO good to be mosaicking again.  I took time away from my studio for a residency.  Then my husband and I were in Denver to see my son and daughter-in-law for 10 fantastic days.  I spent a day with an amazing young artist and her equally amazing mom.  So after that, I immediately resumed work on my selfie.  This morning, Bonsai gives me that skewed sideways smile and says, "Girl, you are nailing this mosaic.  You didn't even need to be so honest about the wrinkle between your eyebrows because nobody notices it but you."  I told him thank you and immediately made him employee of the month.  This is so much evidence to me that dogs, particularly shih tzus, are smarter than they are given credit for.  Anyhoo, the hardest part of this mosaic is DONE.  Starting on dots and stripes tomorrow.  You knew that was coming!    

 

and then...

You know... there are those that would question the sanity of a person that works on a 3 foot by 5 foot piece with a tweezers.  And really, it is ridiculous how long it takes to cut, fit, cut, fit, cut a tile like the one in the lower photo.  But then it is kind of scary how much I enjoy doing all this.  Just the color palette that I am working with is enough to make me giddy.  Down to the wire and I STILL think I can make it by Reston!  Woohoo regardless!

underwhelmed

This week has been a typical week for me, meaning that it is the same roller coaster that I always experience.  No doubt, it is the same that YOU all experience.  A lot of good shit happens and a lot that you'd rather skip.  First thing... I got in Longs freaking Park.  This is HUGE in my book.  I've gotten into shows that are ranked way higher but in all the years I've applied to this show, I could never get in.  I am so unbelievably stoked about this but it would be just as easy for me to focus on the stuff that didn't go so well this week.

 

Let me tell you about a few of the things that I DON'T usually blab about in my blog, newsletter, or FaceBook.  For a while now, I have been involved with serious talk about an enormous mosaic in the med center.  I've been so excited about it that I have lost quite a bit of sleep over it.  So Friday, I found out that they decided against a mosaic (for now.)  They felt the room that they needed art for would be better served with transparent glass on the windows and I had to agree.  They assured me that they def want my work in the hospital and I know that whatever mosaic project pops up in its place will be far more glorious than this one that I had been envisioning instead of sleeping.  I swear to you that all my thoughts directed toward mosaic are never wasted.

 

I look at setbacks as just part of the process.  This week, Rob came in my shop and saw the progress of the wave I am working on.  His comment was, "I am underwhelmed."  He knows, and I know that there are many stages of ugly before a mosaic is finished.  Look at those enormous gaps that will be filled in and rough edges that will be covered with frame.  And for real, who besides me can see a wave in that mess?  It is just a recent thing that I am becoming a little more comfortable with showing my work at this stage. 

 

What I am trying to say is that I think a lot of my friends think that my life is something different than theirs.  It is not that I am trying to hide the fact that I didn't get into Longs Park the first 8 times I applied.  Its also not that I am bragging about getting IN this time.  I am just celebrating HARD CORE because I KNOW what it took to get there.  I guess in a nutshell it is this: What works for me is to talk about and focus on the truth that I got in Longs rather than the truth that I missed out on the med center this time.  I don't worry about how this mosaic looks now because I can see the end.  I realize that whatever I am dealing with I can CHOOSE how to look at every situation.  If you don't believe me, read Viktor Frankl.  Love this life.

gram's wish

gram's wish 20 x 36 inches
Yeah, I'm a slow learner. I remember almost thirty years ago my Gram was shocked that I was planning to spray some toxic shit on something as beautiful as a dandelion.  To illustrate how wonderful they are, she promptly went out in my yard, picked some and ate them, unwashed.  At the time, I was mortified.  How did I not see that what I was planning on spraying in my yard was far worse for my family (not to mention the rest of the world) than eating any dirt that would have been on dandelion leaves?  I feel a little embarrassed admitting to you that it is just 2013 that we quit spraying our yard, even when we were growing food for ourselves in it.  The aha moment came to me when I read the blog of a landscape designer that was working with a doctor that said he knows how toxic even the "safe" sprays are to his family but he doesn't want his neighbors angry.  REALLY??!!  So, I am not going to tell anybody what to do, but I thought maybe I could show you what my Gram wished I would see... that dandelions are pretty. 

anybody ready for spring?

Whew!  This is how much I have been in my shop lately.  That is Rob hanging with me, getting all "comfortable" with my sandblasting cabinet as a backrest.  He normally avoids my shop but till I get a few things sewn up, this is how we do it.

 All right, these are just phone photos and I ask you to look past gaping ungrouted crevices, and bare cement board but almost all of the hard parts are done.  I have a bee that is about two firings away from a decision of whether he will make the cut.  The poof part of this mosaic took WAY longer than expected... then that yellow flower, come ON!  I am still pushing to have the rest tiled by Sunday.  Then I start another school residency Monday and I can hopefully grout this sucker next weekend.  Regardless, all good.  BTW, when I said I was in my shop all the time, I was sayin' that like it's a good thing, cause it is.  Lovin' this life.