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.

this is why

Today I started a new residency in Muncy.  This one is the first time that I have done the same school two years in a row. Because of that, there are a lot of these kids that I have worked with before.  Right at the top of my day, one of the kids I met last year told me that he remembered videos I had showed him and he said he already started working in a job that has him doing what he loves.  Yeah, it doesn't get any better than this.

Our mosaic is a 50 ft. Disney quote, "All of our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them."  How can it get any better?

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.

 













best supporting actor EVER

YES!  My new video is finished!

Bonz playing the part of magician's assistant!  What?  Is it cheating to use a cute dog to make myself look good?  OK, maybe, but I also got a new editing program AND a new camera so this video is bigger and more badass than any of my previous.  I loved this piece and every minute working on it... well, not the part where I smashed the polka dot glass and started over, but the rest.  Stopping to take photos constantly makes a piece take much longer so thanks for watching.  The music in this video is awesome and used legally.   One.man.And  Hope you have good speakers and crank them.  And I have to mention my spectacular dance moves at the end.  yunk yunk. 

 WATCH! Thanks!

snowy owl

Finished this 16 x 20 inch snowy owl mosaic that has been floating in my brain for a while.  I guess she was waiting for the right person to come along and take her home.  Pretty fab when I get something done and I have a home for it.  Love that.  I have never grouted something more challenging than that owl face.  Oh, and the whole thing is sitting pretty in an Evan Germann frame.  WOOT WOOT or should I say whooo whooo?

cookies and cream

OK, first of all, this is not nearly finished.  I hardly ever show my mosaics ungrouted because they are like unfinished paintings.  This will look WAY better with grout but you can see where I am going.  This is the top half of my oreo mosaic and the bottom will be mostly stuff like my stripes and bubbles.  Hope this is done in about a week, who knows?  But YES, I finished my video for my last piece.  Here's the link to MEEP believing. on youtube.