Piecing it all together.

In an attempt to create room for all I do, I am learning how to schedule my time.  I have spent my life pretending to be a free spirit, one who is unencumbered by time, schedules or obligations.  However, as an artist who is up to making a difference in the world, free spirit can only exist in the domain of structure.  My blog is one structure that allows me to share what I create and the how-tos of my creations.  The blog won't make any difference to anyone unless I write it.  I dream about writing it, I write it in my head all the time.  The writing in my head is most likely impossible for you to read.  And now, I realize, it is time to schedule writing and posting my blog on a regular basis.  To begin, I am choosing the 2nd Tuesday of each month.  To remember beyond the recording of the date on a calendar, I created a mnemonic device I call my 2nd Tuesday Tessellations.

Why use the word tessellations?

1. The T goes with the T in Tuesday.

2. I am a mosaic artist and each piece of my mosaic is referred to as a tessera.

3. According to Wikipedia, the Latin word tessera comes from the word tessella, meaning small square.

 Mosaic is often like working a puzzle of small squares, finding where each piece fits such that a bigger picture is formed.  This blog has me distinguish the pieces of what I do so I may see a bigger picture, and how what I do in the space of my own studio relates to the world beyond what I think I know. 

How do you piece it all together in your own life?

For fun, check out this website and play a while with creating tessellated designs.  http://tesselations.org

Image found at http://tessellations.org

Spring is in the air.

The flowers are in brilliant full bloom at the Arboretum.  Today, I taught a workshop called Ladybugs - on- a - stick: Mosaic garden sculptures.  The workshop is a fun way to learn simple sculpture assembly and mosaic application, perfect for beginners and fun for those more advanced in their mosaic skills.

Celebrate Love

How do I love thee, let me count the ways...

When I think of love, I think of all the ways, all the possibilities available to me for creating love in my life.  I am creating a series of hearts from one design pattern and exploring how many ways I might create it.  Here are four from the series: One Heart, Immeasurable Ways: FLORENCE, VENICE,  ROME and PALESTRINA.

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ABOUT BILL

Yesterday, in Dallas, Texas, it was 82 degrees F.  A very hot day for December.  An excellent day to install a mosaic.  The mosaic installation is part of an ongoing work I created to teach my students how to create and install exterior mosaics.  We are covering the concrete supports at Visual Expressions Creative Arts School in Cedar Hill, TX with Texas-themed designs.  Here is Bill, named after my father-in-law who loved the road runner cartoon.  I never met Bill, he was gone before I married my husband.  However, I feel like I know him well through the stories of his children.  One of my favorite stories is that Bill loved the road runner and would not only walk around the house going, "beep-beep,"  but would also collect road runner souvenirs.  One of those souvenirs, a brass road runner sculpture sat on his desk with the rule: "Don't touch my road runner!"  With five kids, Bill seemed to have lots of "don't touch my stuff" conversations.  Honored here in this mosaic is my salute to Bill and his love for Texas.  I like to imagine Bill chasing after Emma Lou (the show-girl armadillo), offering to take her to Vegas.  Go Bill go!

In The News

Pegasus News included our mosaic flowers in a photo essay.  Take a look:  http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2010/oct/15/mosaic-flower-state-fair-creative-arts-center/