the mini salon at the SAMA conference was wonderful! what a joy to be able to gaze upon such a varied display of mosaic art. it was pretty exciting to watch the bidding action, as well. i am happy to report that my mosaic given, not lost sold for a nice price... higher than its starting bid. teresa sullivan, SAMA's past treasurer, and bill buckingham, of mosaic rocks!, were in a bit of a bidding war over it, and teresa won. that really made me feel good.

i will try to get some pics posted of the event.

here are my last 2 rhythms pieces... march and april.

i am really starting to get into these pieces, and to enjoy having a monthly focus. i think it will be fascinating to see all 12 of them together at the end of the year, don't you?

gosh... it sure has been a while since i have posted anything, hasn't it? not sure why that is... guess i have not had much to say.

the SAMA conference in early april was great! i really enjoyed meeting a lot of new people. i also had 2 very good workshops: one with bill buckingham and sophie drouin on working with stones; and the other one with sonia king on the business of mosaics. volunteering was a wonderful experience which gave me an opportunity to meet even more people.

the MAI 2008 exhibit was very exciting... so, so many good pieces representing a lot of different techniques and materials. i think that my favorite mosaic in the exhibit... the one that wowed me the most when i first laid eyes on it... was by scott henderson... i believe.. and was titled swan lake. absolutely stunning! kind of surprising, as i am really more into abstract these days... but it was beautifully done and so, so striking... it just kind of took my breath away. click on the thumbnail to see it.

still working on my monthly rhythms explorations, and i am enjoying both the process and the challenge. i also finished up my latest floating planes piece from my above and below series. i am calling it subtleties. i am not sure how i feel about it... it just did not turn out as i had envisioned it. it was very experimental... but really nothing like i anticipated. i will expand on all that some more when i post some pics in a few days.

not much more to talk about right now... i will post my april rhythms piece now.

more later...

scientist jill bolte taylor's powerful stroke of insight

there will be a new event at the sama conference this year: an all-member mini salon dinner and silent auction. members are invited to register to bring a small mosaic, no larger than 12" x 12", to be silent auctioned or just displayed.

initially, i was not interested in participating, but australian artist marian shapiro kind of persuaded me to join in. so, i created this piece for the event.

the work is titled given, not lost, and is 6" x 9" (15cm x 23cm). the materials are marble, smalti, glass, mirror, pearls, seed beads, beads of glass, shell, and swarovski crystal.