Mosaic Monday/ Sama Recap

Last week I went to the Society of American Mosaic Artist's Conference in Austin Texas. I am exhausted, and wow...  did I pack a lot in.

My first day to play was Weds. and instead of diving into conference activities I broke away from the regular program guide and went with my pals Dave and Linda to visit an old college pal in Elgin Texas. Barry David Perez creates stunning one of a kind fine art jewelry and in his spare time he owns and runs a high end tile making studio that caters to commercial design studios with large budgets.  He generously showed us around his shop and explained the entire process of making ornate tiles the old fashion way, one at a time.

Barry David sent us home with a lot of scrap tile discards to play with...yay!


Thursday I had a terrific workshop with Carol Shelkin on portraiture.  Carol was down to earth and playful ... she has a great sense of humor and she really knew her stuff.  The class was very large but I thought she did a good job of getting around to everyone.  I knew two mosaic people from Dallas in the class and one person expressed the same opinion that there was plenty of one on one attention while another student I know felt that there was not nearly enough personal attention and that the class was way too large.  I guess everyone has different expectations going into a workshop situation. All I  know is I had a great time and learned a lot. I also got to work across from Christine Brallier.  I was very pleased to get to spend time with Christine, she is my oldest mosaic pal over at Flickr, and one of the first people in that community that I have connected with.

Donna Van Hooser, Christine Brallier, Rebecca Collins

My project above started in workshop

Thursday night was the Salon. I sold a piece at Auction and I bought 2 pieces. I was very excited that my work sold but was even more ecstatic to be going home with 2 amazing works by very talented and respected artists.

"The Power Of Pink" by Kim Wozniak

Earlier this year I decided to embrace the color pink and try to throw out my own personal stereotypes about the color. When I saw this contemporary work by Kim I just fell in love with it because she has certainly put her own spin on the color pink.  This work may be very sexy but I do not think I would call it sweet.

"Blue Fox" by Donna Van Hooser

I have been stalking Donna Van Hooser and her work for over a year now and you guys have seen me blog on her mosaics here several times.  I am more than thrilled to have been the high bidder on her charming Blue Fox. Donna was also in the portrait workshop I took. When I was marveling over her precise way of cutting and how quickly she works she smiled and said it is like a pool game, where you see where your shot is going to go and then you instinctively make the shot ... that is how she cuts.

I have more to share, but will follow up next Monday with another Sama post.