end of the school year

I can't say enough thank-yous to the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for hiring me to do these residencies.  I want to again hire my photographer to shoot all four of these projects and will post in situ photos.  For now, I am going to share some of the photos that are of what goes on. 

 I'm anxious to see all these projects together and hung.  I am so proud of them that I have decided to make a serious effort to change my work's direction.  Way back when I was trying to decide if I should do mosaic or fused glass, I knew I should combine both.  Now, I am hoping to find ways to combine my own art with these projects because, frankly, I am addicted to both.

Who wouldn't love working with these two?

For one thing, twenty people at one time can get a whole lot of work done, FAST.  Sure, there are stinkers to contend with, and I don't always get through to them all.  I don't expect to. But when I can get through to one of these tough nuts, it is an indescribable high.  I can tell you that every day of this 40 day stretch, I was looking forward to going to "work."

One school, had a project where each kid got to make their own tile, then we started on the mosaic. 

In the third one, each kid got to do his own little section of a feather.  They chose a color and we assigned real estate.

 They made their own little video of the process and put it out on FUSFOO

 The last one was huge mirror letters that the school wanted in a mosaic of their school colors.  I was dying to do something with Ben Day dots so I was thrilled. 

For right now, I have to work on lining up some epic projects.  WOOHOOOOO!

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!    

 

hey now, you're an all star

Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me. I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed. This smashmouth song was absolutely lodged in my brain for a while. "Hey Now (you're an all star)" is a roll of everything that has been happening for me. My recent decision to refuse to decide between mosaic and fused glass, plus I had just broken a few favorite works...all jumbled up with thoughts about recycled glass. The fused/mosaic combinations that I made last year are some of my favorite works. So, the converse idea has been with me for a while. I briefly thought about doing a high heel but it is so not me. I had Shaundi in yellow Converse high tops when she was just a tot and I clearly remember a hot pink pair she outgrew, handing them down to me before they got stolen from me by Kaleo. This piece is us for sure. It's my blues and greens, a little spot of graffiti and diamond plate, my stripes, my bubbles. I really love the recycled. There is a ring at the top right from a bottle I found in our neighborhood while walking my four legged kids. It has writing pressed into the glass that reads, "Federal law forbids sale or reuse of this bottle." BAH HA HA HA HA HA HA! Some of the rings are from an antique water bottle that we kept change in till Shaundi broke it. And the sneaker? I'm so happy with that, I'm even going to have my site redone around it. Yup! Just that tile took about 2 1/2 weeks with most of that work going in the trash. Its all good.

coming up for air

So totally swamped. I will have the whole skinny on this shortly. For now, here are two "fast and dirty" photos of our progress in Middleburg. This is a result of THREE DAYS of these kids' work, no kidding! First day I spent just explaining how to cut glass...eight times. Every period we start over and each kid takes the time to try it out so the first day nothing was adhered. I can't freaking wait to see this done. Saturday and Sunday I can work on my sneaker mosaic.

OK, here is how I know I have it good. We played the lottery for this weekend's 500 big ones. If we win, the above paragraph will still acurately state my intentions for the next two weeks. No shit! That's my life. I'll hire help around the house so I can WORK MORE!

everyone can give

Yup! Don't need money. Everybody has something they can give. And in doing so, the one you'll help the most is yourself, for sure. When a friend of mine landed this awesome project, he wasn't given a whole ton of money to accomplish it. He asked me to get involved. What he needed were some table tops and he wanted them to be game boards for kids to play on. These are two of the 4 boards that will end up in a play area that is part of Baltimore's Operation Oliver. If you look, you can see my pink camera in the shadow of the iridescent black glass. The bottom is the same glass as the top but sometimes it will flash color and sometimes it will be black.

In short, Operation Oliver is a war veteran's mission to save Oliver Street and bring it back to what it was...maybe even better. Of late, this section had been so deteriorated that it was what the HBO series, "The Wire," is based on. http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/iraq-afghanistan-war-vets-save-us-city-15283191 I definitely had my kismet ON with this work because I wound up meeting an accomplished mosaic artist from Baltimore. Yeah, and she was willing to help! You'll be able to see Jo Alexander's work and mine installed this summer. Take your checkers.

you crazy diamond!

Back in January I had my work in a show in Brooklyn. Exciting enough, right? That's what I'm saying. But wait. We go to the last day of the show, "Glass Threads" at Williamsburg Art and Historical Center. I had shipped three pieces including an old favorite, Sunny Side Up...which SOLD! Then I am thinking that it is pretty cool that I sold work in Brooklyn. BUT WAIT! I find out that Sunny Side Up has become part of the permanent collection of The Yuko Nii Foundation. That's what's what!

Do you know what I am saying? I am saying that if you are thinking about leaving your secure job and following your dreams, I am here to tell you that dreams come true. I don't care how old you are, if you know you're ready, JUMP! I have a link to a video of the Glass Thread exhibit because it shows the armonica, a glass instrument, popular back in Ben Franklin's day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdsNkEEO-e0&list=UU2QGm0o80Jw-nvvfZNEr16A&index=1&feature=plcp

I guess that just floats my boat because I am a glass person and because today I learned that Guy Pratt, featured in Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,”opens the song with an armonica. Pretty cool, huh?

SO proud!

It seems like I have been underground lately, but geez, I have been busy. For the past two weeks, I have been doing another artist-in-residence thing at Juniata High School. In short, that means that I worked with 76 kids and their teacher to create a 3 foot x 7 foot glass mosaic in 10 fast days. Of the 4 hours we worked each day, at least a half hour was spent getting things out and putting them away!

The vision was for the work to say "pride." Each student got a 6 inch by 6 inch square to do whatever they wanted as long as they incorporated their portion of the letter into the design. Half of the students made a fused glass tile while the rest used traditional mosaic methods. For a week and a half we worked blind to what our end results would be. We had no idea if the kids would match their letter patterns close enough to produce a legible word. With 76 kids and many absences, there was no guarantee of how many squares would get lost. I made a map of the kids' squares so that they could see who was adjacent to them in case they wanted to collaborate with one another to create a work larger than 6 x 6 inches within the entire mosaic. We had as many as four working on one section that features a mermaid.

We had butterflies and flowers, buildings and guitars, landscapes and eyes, sports and a cheerleader, PIZZA, a gold cross, and a family crest. I mean, what didn't we have? It was cool that themes that were duplicated were done so- quite unknowingly. Interestingly, the results were that each repeat was so different than the other that it just emphasized our diversity, something we are awfully proud of. So the day before we had to adhere the tiles, the last section was fit in 8 minutes before the bell rang. Nothing needed cut or ground to fit (a feat by itself) and you could read the word loud and clear. These kids have pride in what they are as well they SHOULD. They also have pride in what they have created as do I. So after getting paid to play with kids all day for two weeks, I have to get back to work. Oh wait... that is playing all day too! May the rest of 2012 be this wonderful!

ArtFlow has been brought to the school by a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Perry County Council of the Arts and the Juniata County Cultural Arts Committee.

finally!

All right, it's not the FINAL final picture. It may be January or February till it is done and I can get a finished photo on my site! I can't wait so for now, this is what I got. You can see this will be fantastic when it is done. My part is finished though. The flanking columns will probably be a dark gold. A travertine overhang on top of it will have water raining a curtain of droplets about an inch away from the mosaic. I think I should try to have a boat included in every photograph from now on, right? I hope I can do work like this till I drop.

see what I mean?

In my April 29th post, I wrote about a piece that got into an auction held by Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington. I ended the post saying that this COULD lead to my best news ever. Well, it did. When I opened their catalog link, I saw on page 35, my work is featured with Dale Chihuly and a lot of other artists that I respect....the big guys. Now you may wonder why I think this is such a big deal but think about this. A little over 5 years ago, I could not have imagined this. Sometimes I grumble that things aren't working out because I know I will go to bed tonight and I will not have all of my dreams sewn up YET. But if I really look, I see that things are happening quite fast for an artist who is brandy new. I am def not where I want to be, but the journey to that place is pretty sweet. Keep believing in YOU.

If you friended me on FaceBook, you've already gotten this news. I've been a little behind with K's wedding and then we were on vacation. This mantis is what I finished right before I left for Florida. He's 16 x 23. Museum of Glass has a link to their catalog on their site.

Bethany

I am a scuba diver, not a surfer and I don't really think about being one. So why do I subscribe to a surf mag (it used to be two surf mags!)?? Well, I just love the photos of waves! I mean I just LOVE the ocean. I love making waves out of glass. I love water period!

I'm not sure where I first heard about the Bethany Hamilton story, but I remember driving past a billboard with a motivational message and photo of her standing by her board. When I was up late one night watching Tavis Smiley, he interviewed her for the movie "Soul Surfer." Of course, after seeing the interview and the movie I was so inspired. Even before I saw the movie I figured I would make a wave with Bethany. When I want to complain about something, I stop and think that I really don't have anything to complain ABOUT!

Warrior Run

OMG this is so epic. Yeah, I know I say this all the time but things just get "gooder and gooder!" Don't you get tired of hearing all bad news about bullying??!! There is plenty of great news in that department too and I'm here to tell you about it. OK, so I had mentioned that I would be doing an artist-in-residence project about anti-bullying. I just finished Friday and sat right down with my photos to compile a video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf4DZJDAq6g That is why I have not surfaced on FaceBook or anywhere else. I've been SO swamped. Please crank it up when you see it because the music is fab. Ovuca ( Dilnau ) .....a HUGE thank you to Aleksi Perala for permission to use this. http://www.ovuca.com/ to purchase that song.

Here's the deal. This was mostly middle schoolers but it was everyone from 5th grade to 12th grade. That's right, 5th graders working side by side with seniors. This project was kids who have excellent grades working beside kids who felt they might not be passing in the next few weeks. Everyone was able to help so it was also athletes working with us art kids. None of that "stuff" made a difference. Kids who never even cut glass before turned sheets of glass into tiles the size of your pinky nail and smaller. When I see community mosaic projects, even made by adults, I never see the amount of detail that these kids have pulled out.....and in 17 days! I am SO proud of them. For real, look how young some of these kids are!! It certainly reaffirms my belief that you can do anything you want to do. Oh, and let me also say that this was all voluntary. Yup, these kids could come help when they wanted and a lot of them came in at lunch and after school too!

Seriously, what a stellar month. I got paid to play with kids all week. Can you beat that? I think not. We got on the local news and in the local paper. Cool. I know the word awesome is so over used but these kids are awesomely awesome. Fanfreakintastic! A HUGE thanks to Perry County Council of the Arts and Pennsylvania Council on the Arts for the best hook up ever.

art is subjective

I am SO over the fear of rejection. If you are not failing sometimes, you are not trying big enough things! I tried to get one of my favorite pieces, "Quantum Physics," into Pennsylvania's "Art of the State" exhibit but she was not accepted. That worked out perfectly because that left Quantum free for me to enter her into the "Red Hot Summer" at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA. They DID accept and I just shipped her out this week. See how things work? You just gotta relax. Be patient! Who knows what can happen in Tacoma??!! This could lead to my next "best news ever!" That's what I'm talking about.

Bungle.....in da Jungle 16 x 23

The other day I posted a FB status. I said I was waiting on my kiln to open cause I thought I'd be pretty happy. So this is the guy that was waiting for me in the morning. Why a monkey? Well, a friend of mine was working on a monkey. He mentioned mandrills and I said, "You know.....I think I have a photo of one in my to-do list but it is a year or two off." When I went home, I looked up the photo which set the wheels in motion. I had just made a sheet of green stripes about a month ago so everything was good to go. Bungle jumped ahead of about 20 other ideas. Savin' the raisins for Sunday.

back to skoool

I had said I was going back to Boiling Springs to play with glass in one of their art classes. We made pendants and from what I heard, they got pretty cool. Also, I DID end up getting the artist-in-residence program and it already kicked off. I will be at Warrior Run School District for 4 weeks in May but to get the ball rolling, I talked to students in an assembly last week. That's right, I talked to like six or eight hundred kids at a time.......TWICE.

So basically, I am working with a core group of kids on a HUGE mosaic with a theme of anti-bullying. In order to have more kids feel connected to the mosaic, everyone in the high school and middle school will have the opportunity to help out after school and in free periods during school. In addition, all kids will be able to vote on options within the mosaic. Besides that, the coolest thing is that all students will be able to contribute things that can be included in the fabrication of the mosaic. The plan is to do a video too. The people at this school are fantastic. They set up a site that has everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask. http://www.wrsd.org/district.cfm?subpage=1279031 I CAN'T WAIT!

Grandma's Besty

Cleaning out someone's house really sucks...... especially if it is someone you love. You'll find stuff that is really junk but it is something they valued. When we cleaned out my mother-in-law's home, there was a sock monkey. Perfect example. This sock monkey was so ugly I wish I had thought to take a picture of it. But Corrine kept it in her neat tidy living room where everyone could see. It sat on her couch since my son gave it to her over 10 years ago.

Now I couldn't make myself fabricate a monstrousity like HER monkey. But this whole piece was around that "monkey." Corrine used to have a list of people she would call EVERY day. I was on her list. One of our standard conversations was about what I was working on. Generally I would say, "If this works out it will be my best piece ever." Each time I said that she would laugh her ass off. Or when I show her a new piece she would always make fun, "Is this your best piece ever?" Sometimes she would bring a chair in my shop and just hang. Now she is in a home and most visits does not know us. I sure do miss her. Anyway, Grandma's Besty is 16 x 23.

how do you make Oprah Cola?

You know how it is when something gets stuck in your head?

It is no secret around here that I am a HUGE Oprah fan. Anyway, I was thinking about making something Coke for my brother (coasters?) and I don't know...it just morphed into Oprah Cola 16 x 23. I just wish you could see this in person. A photo of it just doesn't cut it. But the coolest thing is that I made a Youtube video to go with it so please take 3 min to watch. It is my son's music again. I love the song. It's a little sleepy but then around 20 seconds in is the "drop." Oh and please send the video link to 800 friends!