MOSAIC OF ART Radio Show - George Fishman

The Earthquake and the Art of Haiti - Two Years Later

2012-01-12T18:18:00.004-04:00

To honor both those lost in the Haitian earthquake of two years ago and those who strive for the country's rebuilding, here are several Mosaic of Art features and an interview from NPR's Fresh Air.

photo courtesy Judy Hoffman

Judy Hoffman is co-founder of the Art Creation Foundation for Children, an organization in Jacmel, Haiti that provides artistic instruction, training and social assistance - primarily to orphaned children. She was a Mosaic of Art guest two weeks after the earthquake and described the organization's mission. Thankfully, residents and staff escaped catastrophe in the quake, though not considerable damage to the facility.

photo courtesy Judy Hoffman

Quickly, Judy and I recruited community artist Laurel True, who organized a wonderful project in Jacmel, training the Foundation's charges - mostly teenagers - in mosaic design and fabrication techniques. Over the course of several trips and extended stays, the team of young artists created monumental and beautiful murals, honoring the spirit both of memorial and of recovery.

Laurel True in Jacmel

Here in a 5-minute takeout on the Mosaic of Art Laurel speaks about her philosophy of guiding, but not dominating the design process.

The exuberant conclusion of the first phase, with its theme of memorial and survival led inexorably to a continuation of the work, this time with a Sea Spirits theme. Here's an earlier blog post that describes and shows the work.

photo: Laurel True

Wrapping along an adjacent wall, still near the beach the next phase of the mosaic mural project adopted a Karnival theme. This slide show represents that adventure.

photo: Laurel True

Laurel True has returned to the States to work on other projects, including her personal artwork, and fundraising for the non-profit, Partners in Health, but Haiti has been home for close to two years. Currently, she and a new team are installing a suite of mosaics of her design in a new Partners in Health hospital, north of the capitol, in Mirebalais, Haiti. Her facebook page shows recent images, including this one.

LAUREL TRUE with mosaic mural and team members

Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health, which is building - among others around the world - the hospital where Laurel True is working - was interviewed on Fresh Air this summer about progress and challenges. On her own site, Laurel describes the mission of the Mirebalais Hospital.

In the lead-up to the one-year anniversary of the earthquake, a team of artists in Miami painted a glorious mural in Miami's Little Haiti community.

photo: Mark Diamond

The artists were of Congolese, Cuban, Haitian and African-American heritage. They described their participation and noted details about the imagery that they each had a hand in creating. This is the Event page on the Mosaic of Art with a slide show and 5 brief interviews.

photo: Mark Diamond

Suffering persists despite two years of work at great cost and questions of accountability for spending. However, a successful election and formation of a new government, rebuilding of structures at a higher standard of structural integrity, release of pledged donations, and perseverance by those engaged in the difficult, often frustrating recovery work -- all give hope, as suggested in this Miami Herald editorial.

And exhibitions, such as the recent Haiti: Kingdom of This World at the Little Haiti Cultural Arts Center attest to the continuity of vibrant creative expression among Haitians on and off the island. Here's an article in the Washington Post about the show, which features former MOA guest, Edouard Duval-Carrie.

Bernice Steinbaum Gallery hosts Enrique Gomez de Molina exhibition

2012-01-11T11:54:00.000-04:00

Enrique Gomez de Molina
This Is Not Taxidermy
January 14th - February 29th, 2012
Opening Reception - Saturday, January 14th, 2 - 9 PM

Enrique Gomez de Molina's exhibition of seductive and unsettling fantasy creatures opens at Bernice Steinbaum Gallery. Britt Miagowicz writes eloquently about the work.

We are asked not only to use our imagination and immerse ourselves in his realm of fantasy, but more importantly to peel away the beguiling facades and address deeper issues at hand.

ENRIQUE GOMEZ DE MOLINA, Chi Chi La Rue

Gallery director Bernice Steinbaum describes the artist's deep love for animals, which motivates the invention of his beguiling, but disconcerting fantasy creatures. De Molina shares an environmental focus with several other gallery artists, but ironically, he faces prosecution for sourcing his materials without a proper license. Steinbaum speaks passionately in his defense. Listen here.

The current exhibition is pointedly titled, This is Not Taxidermy.

ENRIQUE GOMEZ DE MOLINA, Frangrance (Soft as a Lamb, Dear as a Deer)

Some viewers find the work "creepy" or "weird" and don't distinguish his use of furs and feathers from those of taxidermists or hat and fur dealers who have brought populations of certain creatures to extinction.

In the artist's words, The impossibility of my sculpture brings me both joy and sadness at the same time. The joy comes from seeing and experiencing the fantasy of the work, but that is coupled with the sadness of the fact that we are destroying all these beautiful things.

Booth at Art Miami, showing Tauro by ENRIQUE GOMEZ DE MOLINA,

During that recent recording session, the prominent gallerist (of 35 years standing between New York and Miami locations), also described a trip to Cuba she took to "test the air" in that country, that she calls "an extension of Miami" keen to learn how it is that so much artistic talent has originated there.

Booth at Art Miami

Her emotional encounters with the country's people - especially young artists - combined with reaction to the trip once returned to Miami - inspired an exhibition curated for Art Miami. It's called In and Out of Cuba.

Booth at Art Miami, showing work by ENRIQUE GOMEZ DE MOLINA

Booth at Art Miami, showing work by MANUEL MENDIVE

The Mosaic of Art event page contains additional images and audio.

REYNIER LEYVA NOVO, El Patriota Invisible

DANA SCHUTZ ten year survey at Miami Art Museum

2012-01-11T07:25:00.002-04:00

Artist DANA SCHUTZ' exhibition, a ten-year survey, called "If the Face Had Wheels arrives at the Miami Art Museum fresh from its initiation at the Neuberger Museum in Purchase, NY. The artist and her work have received considerable notice, including reviews and profiles in Art in America and the New York Times.

"Dana Schutz combines fantasy and reality, humor and horror, to create figurative paintings that abound with expressionist energy." (from the Neuberger Museum)

In conjunction with the show at Neuberger Museum, Schutz recorded a series of audio statements that provide good preparation for her talk, scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 14th (6:30) at MAM. Scroll down the exhibition page to find the audio tour.

There will also be a "Playlist Party at the Standard Spa" on Sunday evening! That's where the artist, as well as MAM's chief curator Tobias Ostrander and education director Emily Mello each play-and-explain their top ten list of tunes. This is an especially apt event for Schutz, who has used pop musicians as subjects for her paintings - including a weirdly prophetic rendering of Michael Jackson's autopsy - done four years before his demise.

There's an element of the macabre in a fair share of Shutz' paintings, but leavened with a playful tone and painterly dazzle.

Mosaic of Art - 5 Minute Takeout updates

2011-12-28T23:17:00.001-04:00

During the relative quiet of the holiday, the Mosaic of Art website has received some long-overdue attention. There are 6 new folders inside the Art Basel Miami Beach event area. Here's the direct link. http://bitly.com/RecentEvents The newest 5 Minute Takeouts are linked below. These are short, bite-size interviews. The main stash of several dozen is here.

Get in touch if you would like to record one yourself to let folks know what you're up to: a current project, reading, discovery or other infatuation. Meanwhile, enjoy these, and check back - there are more in the editing room!

NUCIFER SAM on Simplifying Science for lay folks

www.nucifersam.com

JUAN HENRIQUEZ on painting with digital media

www.juanhenriquez.com

JESSICA BARBER on painting industrial landscapes

www.jessicabarberfineart.com

FRANK HYDER on Square Foot Art Basel

www.frankhyder.com

MARC FORNES on Labrys Frisae during Art Week

www.theverymany.com

FAITH RINGGOLD on American People, Black Light

www.faithringgold.com

JUAN GRIEGO on Manuel Mendive at Art Miami

www.BerniceSteinbaumGallery.com

SAMANTHA HOLMES on contemporary work in an old world

CHRIS OH on Here Lies Georges Wildenstein

www.primaryprojectspace.com

FAITH RINGGOLD in Miami

2011-12-26T13:12:00.000-04:00

FAITH RINGGOLD's extraordinary exhibition, "American People, Black Light: Paintings of the 1960s finishes its run at the Miami Art Museum this week. Not to miss! It was curated by MAM director Thom Collins and Neuberger Museum of Art Curator, Tracy Fitzpatrick.

In a brief interview, I recorded at Art Miami, Faith Ringold speaks about the challenges she faced as an artist during that period. Probably best known for her fabric works that combine family history with social dynamics in text, painting and quilting, she has also designed mosaics for transit systems in NYC and L.A. http://bitly.com/FaithRinggoldOnMOA.

THOM COLLINS, FAITH RINGGOLD & TRACY FITZPATRICK at Miami Art Museum

FAITH RINGGOLD with "Die"at Miami Art Museum

FAITH RINGGOLD, Tar Beach (mosaic in progress) at Travisanutto Studio

PROJECTS GALLERY'S SQUARE FOOT ART BASEL

2011-12-19T07:01:00.001-04:00

Artist FRANK HYDER co-directs Projects Gallery in Philadelphia. He describes the conception and realization of Square Foot Art Basel, an exhibition he designed to coincide with Art Week in Miami.

PROJECTS GALLERY - Square Foot Art Basel

Frank Hyder audio

KIM YANTIS and FRANK HYDER

KIM YANTIS

(interview coming soon)

KIM YANTIS, Movement

JUAN HENRIQUEZ

Juan Henriquez audio

JUAN ENRIQUEZ, Untitled Yellow

JESSICA BARBER

Jessica Barber audio

JESSICA BARBER, Red Sky

AIDA TAJEDA

(interview coming soon)

AIDA TEJADA, Reflection 2

NANCY TABAS

MARILYN SIMON

ELIZABETH BISBING

KEVIN HUANG

JACK THOMPSON

MARCELO SUAZNABAR

LUIS LAMBOY

MARILYN SIMON

SAMANTHA HOLMES interview in Ravenna

2011-12-09T12:20:00.001-04:00

SAMANTHA HOLMES is an American artist, currently residing and studying in Ravenna, Italy - one of the world's great treasuries of byzantine mosaics, but also a center of contemporary exploration of the medium. In October 2011, the second RavennaMosaico festival celebrated both ancient and contemporary achievements. Samantha exhibited in several venues and received a prize and purchase award for her work. Here are a few examples.

In her interview she describes her discovery of the medium and her method of finding a balance between fashioning materials and allowing them to express their unaltered nature and history.

Samantha Holmes interview

Mobile Home (Moscow)

Mobile Home (New York)

Rain (Greenpoint)

Rain II (Greenpoint)

Corpo

Corpo detail

Unspoken, 10.22.10 - 07.07.11 (won prize for use of unconventional materials and techniques)

NICOLE MARTINEZ & CARLOTTA PAREDA - WYNWOOD ART FAIR

2011-10-29T12:32:00.000-04:00

The Wynwood Art Fair, a fundraiser for Lotus House Shelter, combined three days of performance and exhibition - on the street - in Miami's Wynwood Arts district. This photo set features NICOLE MARTINEZ and CARLOTA PRADERA's high-intensity, two-stage dance/sound scape collaboration, but also includes several visual arts exhibitors.

Nicole and Carlota performing "Wave," a collaborative dance with live sound.

NICOLE MARTINEZ describes the instrumentation and working process of her collaboration with dancer/choreographer, CARLOTA PRADERA for a performance at the Wynwood Art Fair October 21-23, 2011.

Mosaic of Art on Sabbatical - Gone Fishing?

2011-06-22T20:01:00.004-04:00

Dear friends and colleagues,

Some of you may have wondered what's become of me and the Mosaic of Art during the past few weeks: No Sunday shows, few blog or facebook posts. Regrettably, I've missed out on a lot of art events around Miami too. I haven't fallen into a canal or been on a great travel adventure, but I have been thoroughly absorbed in a new project that will soon be ready for testing and then sharing. I'm keen to talk about it, but my partner and I really need to concentrate on its functionality and get our ducks in a row, so this communication tool can be as useful and engaging as we envision it to be. As they say in Jamaica,"Soon come!" Then, I look forward to being in communication again and learning what's going on outside the walls I've temporarily erected.

Here's to the continued joys of summer (or winter for some folks)!

Cheers,

Still on deck - a studio visit with Charlottesville, VA artist Russ Warren.

As a preview, here's an 8-minute interview about Russ' beginnings.
http://bit.ly/RussWarrenBeginnings

He exhibits in Charlottesville at Lyn Warren's gallery, Les Yeux du Monde.

http://www.lesyeuxdumonde.com/artists/Warren

The gallery recently opened a show of Picasso: Prints from the Mediterranean Years.

Have a QR Code scanner in your smartphone? If so, you can "snap the code" and listen to the interview on your phone. (Give a minute for the audio to load after the page opens. If it doesn't play automatically, touch the little play arrow) Here's a link to free QR Code scanners. http://bit.ly/QRcodeApps.

By the way, did you know, that if you use a URL shortener like bit.ly, you can then add ".qr" to the shortened URL, hit "Return" on your keyboard and, like magic, a QR code will be generated that you can download and print out as a sticker - or include in a postcard or other mailing. Or make into a mosaic!

A few pics from a visit to Russ' Charlottesville studio.

RUSS WARREN, studio visit 1

RUSS WARREN, studio visit 2

RUSS WARREN, studio visit 3

RUSS WARREN, studio visit 4

RUSS WARREN, studio visit 5

RUSS WARREN, studio visit 6

LYN WARREN, studio visit 7

RUSS WARREN, studio visit 8

MOSAIC OF ART - Episode 44 Pablo Cano and Friends at MOCA

2011-05-27T22:46:00.001-04:00

The Mosaic of Art interview describes their collaborative process with images from a recent studio/home gallery visit and from the premiere. Pablo even talks about the origins of the term "marionette" (think, Virgin Mary).

The blogtalkradio broadcast (www.blogtalkradio.com/mosaicofart) is early this week, (usually Sunday afternoons 3pm), so you can attend the marionette performance. Archives are available at the link above and you can also subscribe via iTunes. (www.tinyurl.com/itunesmoa).

Enjoy your holiday with pleasure and remembrance.

MOSAIC OF ART - Episode 43; May 22, 2011 3pm ET

2011-05-18T16:46:00.002-04:00

An extraordinary Roman-era mosaic, recently unearthed from it's 4th century A.D. site in Israel is currently on loan to the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. Originally located in the buried ruins of a large villa, believed to belong to a wealthy Roman, the excellently preserved mosaic floor is an inspiration to scholars, artists and the general public. My guests, artists VANESSA SOMERS and LILLIAN SIZEMORE, share their discoveries in the mosaic and its connections to their own work. Additional images of the Lod Mosaic can be seen here.

LOD Mosaic, photo courtesy Israel Antiquities Authority

Remarkable for the beautiful depictions of animals from land and sea, the Lod Mosaic is dubbed the "Marvelous Menagerie" and is in exceptionally fine condition - and BIG - over 20 feet long. The realistic depictions of animals (although close study also reveals mythical beasts in the mix) is immediately engaging, providing a wealth of details to revel in. Our colleague, NANCIE MILLS PIPGRAS of Mosaic Art Now, has posted eloquently about her recent encounter with this imposing mosaic and the archeologists who brought it forth from its hideaway underground.

LOD Mosaic, photo courtesy Israel Antiquities Authority

THIS SUNDAY, May 22nd at 1 pm PT Vanessa will give a lecture titled Mosaics, a Lost Art—Rediscovered! and present her own adaptation of an ancient theme that she has brought from her studio in Rome. Then, at 2:30 she will give a demonstration. Details of both artists' appearances at the Legion of Honor can be seen here.

VANESSA SOMERS, Asaroton (Unswept Floor)

LILLIAN and VANESSA have traveled extensively to study mosaics, while maintaining studio practices in distinctive personal styles as well.

VANESSA SOMERS, Asaroton (Unswept Floor) detail

Vanessa has given a modern spin to this playful motif of the "morning after" that dates back to ancient Greek times, illustrating that she and they share a sense of humor.

LILLIAN SIZEMORE, Vox
photo ©2011 Lillian Sizemore, all rights reserved

In our conversation Lillian describes details of the ancient mosaic studio workshop designers and artists who created such mosaics as the Lod and she discusses the relevance of their subtle pattern making on artistic practice today. Lillian will give a demonstration of cutting and setting technique on June 12 and July 9 at 2:30pm PT. Details here.

LILLIAN SIZEMORE, Vox - detail
photo ©2011 Lillian Sizemore, all rights reserved

A few examples of Lillian's work can be seen in this album as well as on her web site.

Please tune in Sunday at 3pm ET to Mosaic of Art on Blogtalkradio for this lively show.

If you're attending Vanessa Somer's presentation on Sunday or otherwise can't tune in, not to worry - shows are archived.

Thanks!

George Fishman, producer/host

Seven Wonders of the Modern World - a marionette performance collaboration.

2011-05-13T20:25:00.004-04:00

Performance Artist PABLO CANO transforms antiques, junk and household items into vivacious, mysterious and provocative marionettes. Seven Wonders of the Modern World, a collaboration with writer CARMEN PELAEZ and dancer/choreographer KATHERINE KRAMER currently in performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (www.Mocanomi.org). The interview describes their collaborative process with images from a recent studio/home gallery visit and the from the premiere. Final performances are at 2:00 and 4:00 ET on Sunday, May 29, 2011 at MOCA.

And here's 40 seconds of Blue Danube Waltz: a tribute to Museum of Contemporary Art (North Miami) director, Bonnie Clearwater, host of Pablo's exhibition/performances for a dozen years. Miami Herald theater critic Christine Dolen's story is here.

MOSAIC OF ART - Episode 42

2011-05-05T17:53:00.000-04:00

If you're interested in mosaic artwork in public arenas - have a look at this array of celestial images of ELLEN HARVEY's collaboration with Franz Mayer of Munich and the Valerio Lenarduzzi Studio in Spilimbergo. It was designed, fabricated and installed for the opening of the Yankee's new Bronx stadium in 2009.

ELLEN HARVEY, The Home of the Stars
courtesy the artist; photo: Jan Baracz

Each of the eleven panels is 6.75 by 18 feet and depicts evening-to-nighttime views of the sky that MTA passengers encounter along the bridge that connects the station and the

ELLEN HARVEY, The Home of the Stars
courtesy the artist; photo: Jan Baracz

stadium. Cinematic in its presentation, each "frame" of the ensemble represents a fifteen-minute time increment.

ELLEN HARVEY, The Home of the Stars - detail
courtesy the artist; photo: Jan Baracz

panel 1

panel 2

panel 3

panel 4

and jumping ahead into the night

deeper

and deeper

ELLEN HARVEY, The Home of the Stars - detail
courtesy the artist; photo: Jan Baracz

Ellen speaks about the commission (which she designed in watercolor, based on local photos) and compares styles of work between the Lenarduzzi and Perdomo Studio.

ELLEN HARVEY, Nudist Museum
courtesy the artist; photo Jan Baracz

But, actually, it was The Nudist Museum exhibition at the Bass Museum in Miami, where I first became acquainted with her work Her "Nudist Museum" intervention utilized the Bass Museum's collection of Renaissance and Baroque art - and a few modern bits. (It's described from the museum's perspective by Dr. Adrienne von Lates in MOA Episode 41 and in an abbreviated version in her narrated slide show).

JACOB JORDAENS, Homage to Pomona
courtesy Bass Museum of Art

This time we hear how the project began and evolved from the artist's vantage point. Ellen notes that while we tend to assume that an ideal of beauty is immutable, in fact the examples of beauty expressed in the figurative painting and sculpture of different epoques are quite different - especially interesting to consider in the context of Miami's sexy body fetish!

ELLEN HARVEY, Nudist Museum; After Jacob Jordaens' Homage to Pomona

Ellen's Bass Museum experiment was unique, but continues a theme of "intervention" that is part of former projects and continues in her large new past-meets-present installation at the Turner Contemporary museum in Margate (outside London).

ELLEN HARVEY, Arcadia
courtesy the artist and Galerie Gebruder Lehmann, Locks Gallery and Meessen de Clercq
photo David Grandorge

Please tune in to www.blogtalkradio.com/MosaicOfArt at 3 pm EDT on Sunday to hear the full conversation. (Register if you like, so you can join the chat room).

Can't make it Sunday? Don't worry. Shows are archived.

Thanks!

George Fishman, producer/host

COMING SOON: ELLEN HARVEY

2011-04-28T14:44:00.002-04:00

If you're intrigued by "anonymous art interventions" check out ELLEN HARVEY's forty small paintings scattered around NYC. It's called the New York Beautification Project. Click red dots for images.

ELLEN HARVEY, New York Beautification Project Map
courtesy the artist

Here's one example:

ELLEN HARVEY, New York Beautification Project detail
courtesy the artist

And a detail:

ELLEN HARVEY, New York Beautification Project detail
courtesy the artist

She spoke with me today about this early project, plus her "Nudist Museum" intervention utilizing the Bass Museum's collection of Renaissance and Baroque art - and a few modern bits. Listen to Adrienne von Lates' interview (Episode 41) for the museum's perspective. I've posted a brief narrated slide show on the Mosaic of Art web site.

ELLEN HARVEY, Nudist Museum
courtesy the artist

She has also collaborated with such mosaic fabricators as Perdomo Studio and Franz Mayer of Munich to create large-scale murals, including one at Yankee Stadium MTA station.

ELLEN HARVEY, The Home of the Stars
courtesy the artist; photo: Jan Baracz

Her creation of a unique past-meets-present installation at the Turner Contemporary museum in Margate (outside London) has just opened.

ELLEN HARVEY, Arcadia
courtesy the artist and Galerie Gebruder Lehmann, Locks Gallery and Meessen de Clercq
photo David Grandorge

Stay tuned. Meanwhile, check out Ellen's web site and explore the Mosaic of Art.

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Held over: DR. ADRIENNE VON LATES is Director of Education at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, Florida. (here's a slide show). After describing how she came to her position, she introduces us to the museum's history and the shared goal of integrating the past with the present, working both with artists and museum patrons.

A lot of people feel baffled by art from any period - not just contemporary art, because they feel, Well that's not part of my culture. And so our approach is, it doesn't matter what culture you come from; there's always a space to enter. Also it's the choices that the museum makes to find points of entry; to produce accessible exhibitions; to invite contemporary artists to be in dialogue with the past; to sort of illuminate how the past can still refresh us and lead us to new thinking. - A.V.L.

courtesy Bass Museum of Art

About the Bass Museum's mission: We've had a director here, Sylvia Karman Cubina, for almost 2 years, whose background is in contemporary art. She worked with (collector) Rosa de la Cruz... and her concept for the museum is something called the Endless Renaissance where we will combine the contemporary with the art of the past, so that contemporaries are always looking to the past and in some ways past art can predict the way we look at the world today, because there are themes; there are archetypes there are shapes; there are approaches to looking that sort of continue throughout time.

FRANCESCO BOTTICINI, Portrait of a Young Man

courtesy Bass Museum of Art

The Nudist Museum is the exhibition of paintings by ELLEN HARVEY that von Lates presented. Ellen Harvey is a person who has had an interesting career. She started out as a lawyer at Yale and decided she wanted to indulge her passion for painting. She remembers that when she was 10 years old, going to a museum with her parents, she was fascinated by all the nudity. She just fixated on all the flesh and she knew she was being naughty. So one of her naughty fantasies is to just focus on nude objects, nude figures in museum collections, so we gave her mostly black and white photographs or jpegs of low resolution... Most of them were religious -- a lot of Madonna and childs... lots of little cupids... (S)he started working in grisaille or grayscale and only highlighted the fleshy parts that she loved. In some cases, like this bronze statue over here from the Art Deco, she took it upon herself to flesh them out, to give them flesh colors which they don't have.

JACOB JORDAENS, Cornucopia
courtesy Bass Museum of Art

ELLEN HARVEY, Nudist Museum; detail
courtesy the artist and Bass Museum of Art

She got all these used picture frames, and she painted on top of them and let the paint drip from them.. creating more of a kind of haunted display of little objects coming to life. You can see just by the way that she's presenting it that it's a little off beat and is again a reflection of her sense of humor and the fact that she is not being deadly serious in her approach to all these little naked bodies.

ELLEN HARVEY, Nudist Museum; detail

courtesy the artist and Bass Museum of Art

In conversation with the audience, the question was raised: You're a contemporary artist; why are you looking at all this old stuff? And she (Harvey) says, because it allows her to fantasize and to re-imagine and have a kind of dialogue with these pieces, and people appreciated that.

ELLEN HARVEY, Nudist Museum; installation view

courtesy the artist and Bass Museum of Art

People are curious about what they're looking at, and it's pretty clear that these are not the straight kinds of copies. And of course we're not going to keep this; it's all going to go back to the artist... It's almost more like a performance; it's performing here for a month and letting people sort of riff off of them and see what they want in them. Regarding the educational value of this exhibition, von Lates said, It's an example of the mission of the Museum right now, which is to have living artists re-examine and intervene with our collection. So it's an example of what we're allowing artists to do...

ELLEN HARVEY, Nudist Museum; installation view

courtesy the artist and Bass Museum of Art

We are looking for artists who are willing to engage with history and see it in new ways and hopefully inspire our visitors to see how an artist interprets the emotional relationships or the color value or tries to see it in human terms.

MARCELLUS COFFERMANS, Holy Family with Angel

courtesy Bass Museum of Art

Please tune in to www.blogtalkradio.com/MosaicOfArt at 3 pm EDT on Sunday to hear the full conversation. (Register if you like, so you can join the chat room) Adrienne von Lates' delight in her work shines through and brings both the collection and the exhibition to life.

Can't make it Sunday? Don't worry. Shows are archived.

Thanks!

George Fishman, producer/host

MOSAIC OF ART - Episode 41; April 24, 2011 at the Bass Museum

2011-04-21T07:02:00.016-04:00

This Sunday on the Mosaic of Art we meet DR. ADRIENNE VON LATES. She's Director of Education at the Bass Museum of Art in Miami Beach, Florida. (here's a slide show). After describing how she came to her position, she introduces us to the museum's history and the shared goal of integrating the past with the present, working both with artists and museum patrons.

courtesy Bass Museum of Art

FRANCESCO BOTTICINI, Portrait of a Young Man

courtesy Bass Museum of Art

JACOB JORDAENS, Cornucopia
courtesy Bass Museum of Art

ELLEN HARVEY, Nudist Museum; detail
courtesy the artist and Bass Museum of Art

ELLEN HARVEY, Nudist Museum; detail

courtesy the artist and Bass Museum of Art

ELLEN HARVEY, Nudist Museum; installation view

courtesy the artist and Bass Museum of Art

ELLEN HARVEY, Nudist Museum; installation view

courtesy the artist and Bass Museum of Art

MARCELLUS COFFERMANS, Holy Family with Angel

courtesy Bass Museum of Art

Can't make it Sunday? Don't worry. Shows are archived.

Thanks!

George Fishman, producer/host

MOSAIC OF ART - Episode 40; HELD OVER + YouTube vid

2011-04-07T16:15:00.007-04:00

During Sunday's Mosaic of Art broadcast, we meet Charles Stainback. He is the Norton Museum of Art curator of photography and provides a "backstage" account of the pleasures and challenges of the curatorial profession - and eloquently presents his particular style of com-mitted practice. We begin with a short characterization of the normally arduous process of creating an exhibition.

New slide show on YouTube from the Norton Museum with curator Charles Stainback interview. Twenty minutes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ7YDAigvyE

VIK MUNIZ, The Tragic End of 125,000 Miles of Air Travel

Courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

The hard work begins about a year out. Six months out we're dealing with all sorts of issues from presentations to loans for borrowing works from other institutions. The last two weeks are the funnest part, because we're actually in the gallery with the art works and sometimes with the artists actually installing the show. So after working on something for a year or two, we have maybe two weeks to play and enjoy it and then there's the opening and then we start the next project.An exception to this timetable was the "Now WHAT?" exhibition from last winter.

ALLYSON STRAFELLA, Inverted Red Catenary
Courtesy of the artist and Von Lintel Gallery

We started December 1 at 10 o'clock on Wednesday morning and we just started walking. The one thing that we said is that we wanted it NOT (to be) sort of a top 40; we wanted it to be an exhibition where there was a thematic connection between the art work, so it made a more significant curatorial statement.

This show, from the starting of the curatorial process to the opening, was about 10 days, which some of my colleagues basically asked me if I was crazy! But it was a fun exercise ...and it's really an exciting exhibition.

JULIAN MONTAGUE,

Volumes from an Imagined Intellectual History of Animals, Architecture and Man
Image courtesy Black & White Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

We consider the connection between collecting now and collecting when the Norton Museum was founded.

When you look at the history of the Norton Museum and Ralph Norton, his collecting philosophy in the 20s 30s and 40s... he basically was collecting contemporary artists. So following that tradition we want to really embrace Ralph Norton's sort of daring acquisitions of about 70 years ago and make sure that we are addressing the art of the moment.

NICK CAVE, Soundsuit
Collection Norton Museum of Art
In Stainback's view there's a prevalent misconception about the role and power of the art Establishment.
People think that curators and museums define the art world and define the art, and it really is the artists. Artists show us and tell us what is significant and our job is just to respond honestly to what the artists are doing.

ISAAC LAYMAN, Blackout
Courtesty the artist and Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland

The curator describes one museum patron's reaction to a piece in the "Now WHAT?" exhibition.

David Shapiro.. makes drawings of every receipt for everything that he spends money on from his cable bill to his cab ride... and he draws these things with exacting detail and they're done on basically a long scroll... The drawings are exacting in their detail. I've even had heated discussions with people who try to tell me this cannot be drawings - that they're xeroxes!

DAVID SHAPIRO, September

Popularity isn't paramount in his decisions when he feels it's time to showcase important work.

Last summer I did a show that was a video exhibition.. we knew that virtually no one would like the exhibition, but I felt that the topic was an important one in terms of introducing video art to the general public in South Florida. Video is really very much a part of contemporary art. The comment book in the gallery... I would say 75% of the people were just outraged, but there were 25% of the people who thought it was fabulous!

This certainly demonstrates a "glass half full" attitude, and Stainback has a great appreciation of his position at the Norton, which gives him full opportunity to express his creative voice.

J.D. OJEIKERE, Onile Gorgoro
collection Norton Museum of Art

That's the great thing about museum work, and that's the great thing about this museum. They really do allow the curators to make their statement, to sort of say here's what I think is significant; here's what I think we should be thinking about.

Tune in to www.blogtalkradio.com/MosaicOfArt to hear the full conversation. Charles Stainback is clearly passionate about his work and gives a clear sense of what goes with the territory.

Thanks!
George Fishman, producer/host
NEXT SUNDAY, APRIL 23, WE'LL HEAR DR. ADRIENNE VON LATES, EDUCATION DIRECTOR OF THE BASS MUSEUM OF ART.

Artist ELLEN HARVEY - Public art in varied settings

2011-04-04T06:14:00.000-04:00

ELLEN HARVEY, The Home of the Stars
courtesy the artist; photo: Jan Baracz

Each of the eleven panels is 6.75 by 18 feet and depicts evening-to-nighttime views of the sky that MTA passengers encounter along the bridge that connects the station and the

ELLEN HARVEY, The Home of the Stars
courtesy the artist; photo: Jan Baracz

stadium. Cinematic in its presentation, each "frame" of the ensemble represents a fifteen-minute time increment.

ELLEN HARVEY, The Home of the Stars - detail
courtesy the artist; photo: Jan Baracz

panel 1

panel 2

panel 3

panel 4

and jumping ahead into the night

deeper

and deeper

ELLEN HARVEY, The Home of the Stars - detail
courtesy the artist; photo: Jan Baracz

Ellen speaks about the commission (which she designed in watercolor, based on local photos) and compares styles of work between the Lenarduzzi and Perdomo Studio.

ELLEN HARVEY, Nudist Museum
courtesy the artist; photo Jan Baracz

JACOB JORDAENS, Homage to Pomona
courtesy Bass Museum of Art

ELLEN HARVEY, Nudist Museum; After Jacob Jordaens' Homage to Pomona

ELLEN HARVEY, Arcadia
courtesy the artist and Galerie Gebruder Lehmann, Locks Gallery and Meessen de Clercq
photo David Grandorge

Please tune in to www.blogtalkradio.com/MosaicOfArt at 3 pm EDT on Sunday to hear the full conversation. (Register if you like, so you can join the chat room).

Can't make it Sunday? Don't worry. Shows are archived.

Thanks!

George Fishman, producer/host

MOSAIC OF ART - Episode 39; April 3, 2011 REBROADCAST

2011-03-23T17:31:00.001-04:00

TECH PROBLEMS RESOLVED. FULL HOUR'S SHOW HAS BEEN RECORDED,
UPLOADED AND IS BROADCAST-READY.

A fateful series of fruitful sessions with Andy Warhol and other illustrious Pop artists at the brink of their fame has served as a calling card for WILLIAM JOHN KENNEDY's photographic production, but he has been a prolific, highly talented and successful artist before and since. In this episode of the Mosaic of Art, Kennedy shares stories from this fertile period of his life. LOUIS CANALES, creative director of Miami's Kiwi Arts Group, contributes his expertise on the forces at work during this critical "changing of the guard."

Andy Warhol holding an unrolled acetate of “Marilyn” in the Factory, New York City, 1964.
© 2011 William John Kennedy, kiwiartsgroup.com

A major collection of his negatives, shot during the 1960s at the Factory and in other settings around New York City has recently been printed and presented to the public in collaboration with Kiwi Arts Group.

Andy Warhol in a field of black-eyed Susans holding a bouquet of flowers with an early “Flowers” canvas serving as a backdrop in Queens, New York, 1964.   © 2011 William John Kennedy, kiwiartsgroup.com

Actually, it was sort of a self assignment. I had this specific idea in mind of shooting these particular artists, but involving them heavily with their own work. My own belief was that that particular way of recording artists and their work had not been done before that. - W.J. K.

Robert Indiana at his Coenties Slip studio with “EAT/DIE” (1962) diptych on wall and “The Red Diamond Die” (1962) reflecting in mirror, New York City, 1963. © 2011 William John Kennedy, kiwiartsgroup.com
When his (Robert Indiana's) mother died he was in the Air Force in Alaska and he got a leave of absence to go back home... when he arrived, he didn't recognize her, because she was so far gone, and she asked him, "Have something to eat," and five minutes later she died... So, there's that autobiographical point of view. Added to that was his view of American consumerism. We're here to eat consume and then die.  L.C.

Robert Indiana sitting in the plant room at his Coenties Slip studio, New York City, 1963.
© 2011 William John Kennedy, kiwiartsgroup.com

He (Indiana) would take one of these particular structures, and then off of that he would go into an abstraction with it, or actually use it as an outline for his numeral works and that sort of involvement. W.J.K.
Robert Indiana holding his cat at his Coenties Slip studio, New York City, 1963.
© 2011 William John Kennedy, kiwiartsgroup.com

The art structure at the time tried to suppress this, because what they were doing, this new group, was a Renaissance in art. What it was going to do was not necessarily negate what had been going on in art before, but the focus would now be on this new group rather than the old group. - W.J.K.

Contact sheet of Ultra Violet in William John Kennedy’s New York City studio opposite his north light window,
New York City, 1964. © 2011 William John Kennedy, kiwiartsgroup.com

It wasn't so unusual for Bill Kennedy to photograph someone wearing a necktie, but in the case of previous Mosaic of Art guest, ULTRA VIOLET, it was all she wore that day. Bill describes the fun and challenge of this wintertime shoot. All you had to do with this enchanting woman was give her a prop and let her go; you just let her go free, and you can see the results - a great, great talent.  - W.J.K.
Also on Sunday's show...

©TOM WEINKLE, Wetlands
Following a successful career as a graphic designer, pastel artist, TOM WEINKLE is pursuing his dream to create personal artwork full-time. His chosen medium is pastels, and he'll explain why.  I think that one of the things that makes pastels unique is the way that the color reacts with the surface you're working. While if you're painting, you're usually holding a brush or some other implement between you, and it's basically just a bigger distance... I felt like pastel gave me a much greater connection with what I wanted to do and say and record. - T.W.

©TOM WEINKLE, Adrift

...in some sense the title Adrift is very much what it's about. I saw this boat and I started to realize it wasn't really that the person had to be in it, but this wasn't moored anywhere... This idea of what it means for your boat to be kind of drifting, whether it's calm or rough seas. I thought that was kind of provocative. - T.W.
©TOM WEINKLE, After Hours
In a sense it's an attempt to really show what it is for the fairy. I mean what is her down time like? What happens? Is she tired? Is she exhausted? Is she relieved? And so that was the root of what that painting was about. - T.W.

©TOM WEINKLE, Near Hacienda Martinez
One of the fun things about being an artist is... Often you're recording, making pictures of things, but at the same time there's a point in every piece of artwork where it sort of takes off and becomes art and not just a recording of what you saw. - T. W.

Please tune in to www.blogtalkradio.com/MosaicOfArt 3-4pm on Sunday. (register if you like, so you can join the chat)

Can't make it Sunday? Don't worry. Shows are archived.

Thanks!
George Fishman, producer/host

MOSAIC OF ART - Episode 38; HELD OVER TIL March 20

2011-03-10T17:36:00.006-04:00

I’m awed by the resiliency of the human spirit, our ability to heal, grow, and re-create ourselves. This intention to live from the belief that “all things are possible in life” has freed me to follow my natural artistic impulses. I hope to share this belief through my work, and with each person who interacts with it. -Marcelo Holzinger

MARCELO HOLZINGER, Quadro del Sol

Mixed media artist, MARCELO HOLZINGER, joined by a diverse array of colleagues from around the U.S. and coordinated by The Eclectic Arts Movement (T.E.A.M.) and seepr services, is participating in an auction called No Boundaries Prosthetic Foundation to benefit Haitian children who lost limbs during Haiti's devastating earthquake last year. The sale of Marcelo's and other donated artworks will help with the purchase of prosthetics. Slideshow of NBPF in Haiti.

MARCELO HOLZINGER, Crimson Quadro

This Sunday's show will feature a live conversation with the team of participants to learn what's involved in creating an event like this and getting it to efficiently serve its purpose. Altruism is certainly an essential ingredient, but what else does it take to go from A to Z?

MARCELO HOLZINGER, Earth Dramatique

Maybe you have a worthy cause you would like to assist through an arts event. Considering an auction? What's involved? How do you go about recruiting participants, and what are the next steps? And then, when the exhibition venue is cleaned up and the money counted, how do you evaluate your success? These are among the issues we'll explore with Marcelo, T.E.A.M. administrator, NELSON DELGADO and CHERYL MOODY, partner in see pr services.

Have questions about organizing an auction for a cause you care about? You may find the answers.

T.E.A.M., The Eclectic Arts Movement

Based in Miami, The Eclectic Arts Movement (T.E.A.M.) is dedicated to exhibiting the work of artists from all parts of the globe. T.E.A.M. is an institution that focuses on new developments in painting, fashion design, sculpture, photography, architecture, performance art and new media. We are committed to showcasing art and artists that are relevant to diverse audiences and that contribute to the overall well-being of our society and the planet.

FAMILY, courtesy FotoKonbit

FotoKonbit, co-director NOELLE THEARD will present another vital Haiti connection. She describes the mission and activities of the organization she helped to found and staff. They teach photography workshops in Haiti and the Diaspora, "to engage and empower Haitians to tell their own stories and document their community through photography." Photo Konbit then presents the photos both in Haiti and in the U.S.

SEATED GIRL, courtesy FotoKonbit

"So, Haitians inside of Haiti, we want them to see these pictures, but... the international community, we want them to see these picstures too, because they really show a different reality, a different sense of what Haiti is like - very different from what we see in the news media."

Please tune in to www.blogtalkradio.com/MosaicOfArt 3-4pm on Sunday. (register if you like, so you can join the chat). Can't make it Sunday? Don't worry. Shows are archived.

Thanks!
George Fishman, producer/host

MOSAIC OF ART - Episode 37; March 6, 2011

2011-03-02T18:36:00.002-04:00

Last week's show was ALL about mosaic art, and we had a great trio of guests to begin a review of the (SAMA) Society of American Mosaic Artists annual conference and some of the issues involved in creating a juried exhibition and even defining what a mosaic is! Thanks again to KAREN AMI, PAMELA IRVING and BROOKS TOWER for their lively and informed participation as guests.

KAREN AMI, Frank

PAMELA IRVING, Russian Dog Alexander

BROOKS TOWER, First Seed

This week's guests comprise a range of artistic endeavors. DINORAH de JESUS RODRIGUEZ creates animation the old fashion way, painting and scratching on film cell by cell. Hours of painstaking work are required to create a few seconds of screen time. A recent project in Miami involved projection of her films onto a "screen" of trees in parks around the city. She'll explain.

DINORAH de JESUS RODRIGUEZ, Coloring Blonde

French-born artist, ULTRA VIOLET (Isabelle Collin Dufresne), reveled in the juiced-up atmosphere of Andy Warhol's Factory scene during her youth, and was a model for a number of artists of that famous milieu in New York's burgeoning 1960s art scene, including photographer William John Kennedy, who will also be a Mosaic of Art guest. This was a time of great experimentation - both artistic and social - but there were also numerous casualties. (Famous for Fifteen Minutes: My Years with Andy Warhol, is Ultra Violet's best-selling account of the experience). She will describe how her own orientation toward life and art took a sudden turn.

ULTRAVIOLET, Micheangelo

We won't leave mosaics out of the mix entirely. Two distinctive snippets from the SAMA conference provide lively views of the rewards of participation. Artist CAROL SHELKIN, recently featured in the book Mosaic Fine Art Portraits by Irit Levy and Pamela Givens, describes the challenges of teaching a workshop in stained glass mosaic portraiture within a compressed time frame.

CAROL SHELKIN, Beautiful Day

Then JESSE WOZNIAK (Crystyle's brother; Kim's son) relates the experience of staffing the booth for his family's mosaic supply companies, Wits End Mosaic and Smalti.com, and meeting their customers face to face.

CRYSTYLE and KIM (r) WOZNIAK with Kim's Intersections

KIM WOZNIAK, Intersections detail

Please tune in to www.blogtalkradio.com/MosaicOfArt 3-4pm on Sunday. (register, if you like, so you can join the chat room and mark the show as a favorite).

These conversations that I will air Sunday are pre-recorded, but if you would like to phone in during the show to comment on the interviews or your experience at the mosaic conference in Austin, please do so. The number is 646-721-9843.

It's fun to listen live, but don't worry, the shows are archived.

Thanks!
George Fishman, producer/host

MOSAIC OF ART - Episode 36; Feb. 27, 2011

2011-02-24T17:38:00.001-04:00

The 2011 Society of American Mosaic Artists conference in Austin, Texas has just concluded, but not everyone was able to attend, although a record number DID make it.

Austin Capital dome

A few were busy outside; other members remained home in Egypt, Russia or Australia - even parts of the U.S.. There's always next year!

Austin Marathon

There's still lots to learn for those unable to attend and much to re-visit for those who were. There are thanks to extend; conversations to continue; artworks to review!
This Sunday, SAMA exhbition committee chair, KAREN AMI will join me LIVE to talk especially about a vital aspect of the organization's mission - its exhition program. Specifically, inquiring minds want to know about the guidelines that juries are given - especially those jurors whose familiarity with the mosaic medium is limited.

KAREN AMI, tour guide, with JANET KOZACHEK's Three Intruding Fanatics

hmmm
Australian artist, PAMELA IRVING, will be on the show as well. A stalwart of the Aussie/New Zealand mosaic community (MAANZ is holding its National Symposium in the Barossa Valley on Aug. 13 & 14, 2011), she was the Austin conference keynote speaker and can discuss regional "antipodean" attitudes about the mosaic art medium and where she views its place in the art establishment - having traveled extensively and recently completed an intriguing and productive residency in Russia.

PAMELA IRVING, Ark

And we'll venture carefully into the emotionally-rich topic of "The Definition of mosaic fine art - who cares and why?" BROOKS TOWER is among the artists attending (and his case exhibiting), who find the topic of great interest and insufficiently addressed by the panel discussion that was convened for that purpose (and which I moderated). The topic has generated both light and heat in subsequent online discussion on the Ning group, CMA. I give praise and thanks to the panelists for their contributions, but agree there's more to be said -- and I offer a brief additional forum on Sunday's show.

"I will make this bald assertion. Every panelist there, and every attendee, has a working definition of mosaic in their head. They may be scared to state it. They may think that saying it out loud is ju-ju, or amateurish, or indicative of an inadequate art education, but every person there has one." -Brooks Tower

BROOKS TOWER, "art shirt" (not a mosaic)

BROOKS TOWER, Sub Lingua

Please tune in to www.blogtalkradio.com/MosaicOfArt 3-4pm on Sunday. (register if you like, so you can join the chat) You can also call in during the second half of the show. 646-721-9843. Images from the Austin conference can be seen on Flickr here and here.

MOSAIC OF ART - Episode 35; Feb. 13, 2011

2011-02-10T13:14:00.000-04:00

AMY KUPFERBERG began as a metal sculptor. "While fabricating an armature for another sculpture, I became intoxicated by the beauty and grace created from arc welding. In order to fabricate the armature to an exact likeness, I bent the steel and clamped it down directly on top of a drawing of the armature and welded the steel at the cross points. When I lifted the armature up and saw the marks that were left on the paper, I knew that something important had happened." A.K.

AMY KUPFERBERG, Untitled

LISA SILVERA and CHERYL MOODY help Amy - as well as many other artists - find the appreciative audience of collectors and institutions that provide the "air" in which AMY can take flight. "So we do PR, branding and marketing for the contemporary artists whose work we're passionate about. I am in this collective and supported with Lisa Silvera and Christopher Hughes' see pr & artennae global art consulting services' brilliant brainstorming and marketing and with my contemporary art experience we put it together, and that's how we get the beautiful work out in the world." C.M.

LISA SILVERA (l) and CHERYL MOODY (r)

Art History department chair at the University of Mary Washington, JEAN ANN DABB is an enthusiast of mosaics - past and present. But, as an exhibition juror, her sense of the medium is evolving. "If my working definition now includes a composition of separate distinct elements which having been combined into a larger matrix, then I've given up the notion of some kind of adhesive element and permanence and stability, so I think it's whatever the artist may want to use as their defining definition, and if they want to call it sculpture, installation or mosaic, I can be receptive to that notion." J.A.D.

JEAN ANN DABB, Imaginary Archeology

DINORAH DE JESUS RAMIREZ creates animatIon the old fashioned way: marking on film, frame by frame. "When you hold a film in your hand it has a head and a tail. I can look at this (strip of film) and see movement in the same way that a composer can look at a sheet of music and hear notes - a symphony. I exhibit them vertically because I want you to experience the language of film with the language that film speaks... It's like cells of time; they're like cells of time and there's 24 cells to a second of time in this machine, so when you look at this and count 24 of those little sprocket holes you can see how long one second actually is and what it looks like... This is a way in which humans have attempted to trap time and movement, and film in many ways is the attempt to solidify cells of time and cells of movement." D.R.

DINORAH de JESUS RODRIGUEZ, Coloring Blonde

After 30 years behind the camera and cultivating his market, PAUL MORRIS has the commercial side down: the corporate portrait, the romantic backlit smoke coming off a cigar, riding a helicopter to capture the money shot of golden light on a downtown high-rise, but the artist's heart is in the landscape aesthetic he shares with his early 20th-century heroes: images captured on film - not digitally. Stone sentinels in a remote Scottish island meadow, a Mongolian horseman. He'll talk about it all.

PAUL MORRIS, Callanish Circle #2

Please tune in on Sunday, 3-4pm EST to the Mosaic of Art on Blogtalkradio.

If you register first on Blogtalkradio, you can join the chat room to comment.

Warmest regards,

George

If you've missed previous episodes, just click here to find links for downloading shows into your iPod or iPad.

MOSAIC OF ART - Episode 34; Feb. 6, 2011

2011-02-01T14:57:00.003-04:00

This Sunday, after a couple of delays, I'll air JENNIFER LEWIS' eloquent account of managing glass artist Dale Chihuly's international exhibitions for more than a decade. She provides a capsule history of American blown glass' evolution - and its consideration as an artistic medium. "You have to have a Peter Voulkos and a Dale Chihuly to move a mundane material into the transformative." J.L.
DALE CHIHULY, installation at Fairchild Tropical Garden - Miami
In an earlier interview, sales director PETER DOLAN of Andrea Schwartz Gallery in San Francisco spoke about, GUGGER PETTER whose portraits combine elements of loom and hand weaving of sun-bleached newspaper rolls.

GUGGER PETTER, Madonna 1

This time, we discuss the dynamics of selecting artists for gallery representation and maintaining that professional relationship during the age of the internet and its potential for "poaching."

SEAMUS CONLEY, Saturday Night Special

Popular British artist MARTIN CHEEK, also takes flight on the internet; in his case it's in support of his international teaching program and in promotion of the glass fusions he creates - and his books.
MARTIN CHEEK
"On the surface they're completely different things - animation and mosaic, but the way in which you apply yourself mentally to one frame at a time or one tessera at the time is exactly the same, in fact. And questions such as 'How many tesserae are in that mosaic?' for me, it's the same as saying, 'How many drawings are in that animated film?' When you're doing it, it's the last thing on your mind..." M.C.

MARTIN CHEEK, Byzantine Peacocks
Martin describes his unusual pathway to mosaics, the essentials of his distinctive design approach and the lessons to be learned from other mediums - including from what we DON'T like.
MARTIN CHEEK, Day of the Dead Horseman
Martin follows his own beat, takes humor seriously and isn't afraid to rattle a few cages.

Please tune in on Sunday, 3-4pm EST to the Mosaic of Art on Blogtalkradio.
If you register first on Blogtalkradio, you can join the chat room to comment.
Warmest regards,
George
If you've missed previous episodes, just click here to find links for downloading shows into your iPod or iPad.

MOSAIC OF ART - Episode 33; Jan 30, 2011

2011-01-27T19:02:00.018-04:00

The MOSAIC OF ART has an art installation this week that precludes proper preparation and promotion of a new Sunday broadcast. (apologies to those who are awaiting the second part of my interview with PETER DOLAN of Andrea Schwartz Gallery and with JENNIFER LEWIS, who will describe her management of glass artist Dale Chihuly's international exhibitions.

DALE CHIHULY - Fairchild Tropical Garden installation

Fear not, they're in the queue; soon come!

GEE'S BEND QUILT COLLECTIVE detail

Cued up instead is a sampler: brief conversations with a quilter from Gee's Bend, soundbites from Chicago's 2010 Society of American Mosaic Artists conference, bits of conversation from stages of a Malaysian mosaic collaboration this past spring and interview segments with artists and art patrons at from along the way. I hope you enjoy this appetizer and that you will join me again for a "normal" broadcast next week.

GFF, HELEN BODYCOMB, GLENN ROMANIS, DOM JOHNS, Shyness of Trees detail

For info and a slide show about the travel adventure that culminated in the Malaysian mosaic project, follow this link.

http://mosaicofart.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html

Please tune in on Sunday, 3-4pm EST for the Mosaic of Art on Blogtalkradio.

Warmest regards,

George

MOSAIC OF ART - Episode 32. January 23, 2011

2011-01-20T16:30:00.023-04:00

JOANN LOCKTOV  is known to her friends as an avid but gentle exponent of beautiful mosaic and tile surfaces, and maybe even better known as passionate about matters Italian - especially Venetian. (her twitter profile says, Venetophile!)
JOANN LOCKTOV in Venice
Who knew she's been a movie producer and development director? Anyway, her personal enthusiasms have translated into a professional practice: Bella Figura Communications, a boutique PR firm in Mill Valley, CA. She tells the story of that evolution and gives promotional guidance - especially for designers and artists - in the course of our conversation. A "teaser" is available in the form of a 5-minute takeout section of the Mosaic of Art web site. (scroll down about half way on the page)
SARA BALDWIN of New Ravenna
JoAnn is a maestra of synergy among activities, interactions, products and attitudes. Her sage counsel about organization is well worth a listen, even if her personal methods - neat piles of paper on a big table and an "old-school" paper calendar - are not for everyone. By no means a luddite, JoAnn has immersed herself in social media and offers lots of do's and don't's - recognizing that everyone needs to find their own style. HerTileista blog is read by thousands.

Also on the show: While managing international exhibitions for the DALE CHIHULY STUDIO , independent curator JENNIFER LEWIS  has witnessed the medium of hot glass undergo major transformations of character and gain a critical measure of visibility - if not total acceptance - in the fine arts establishment.
DALE CHIHULY, Red Sea at Norton Museum of Art
She will participate in a panel discussion at the Society of American Mosaics conference in Austin to consider the parallels between blown glass and mosaics in terms of their status as mediums worthy of consideration by the arbiters of artistic value.
DALE CHIHULY, Red Sea detail
Here are a few quotations from our conversation: Chihuly was an early student of Harvey Littleton, and his thought process was informed by the early studio glass movement - heroic in intention but not very interesting to look at.  ... it was not until 80s when Chihuly brought Italian maestros from Venice to show secrets of technique that the Americans were able to incorporate technique into all that expression and risk-taking. It was the meeting of Italian bravura technique and American bravado.

Europeans have a myth of the hero artist; the Japanese don't have it. In Japan the conversation about art and craft was not important. They were assumed to be one and the same.
DALE CHIHULY - Fairchild Tropical Garden Installation
You have to have a Peter Voulkos and a Dale Chihuly to move a mundane material into the transformative.
The public wants to be moved and to see things that are outside what they understand they could make themselves.
You have to shatter all preconceptions before people will accept that it's something outside their experience.
DALE CHIHULY, Neon Tumbleweed; Architect, ALBERTO ALFONSO
BTW, one of JoAnn's clients, the architect, Alberto Alfonso, designed the The Chihuly Collection in Saint Petersburg, Florida - the only building designed specifically for Chihuly’s art. Bit of synergy there!
Please tune in on Sunday, 3-4pm EST to the Mosaic of Art on Blogtalkradio.
If you register first on Blogtalkradio, you can join the chat room to comment and see the switchboard (kidding:)

Warmest regards,
George

You can also find the link on facebook:  www.facebook.com/MosaicOfArt. Generally updated late on Thursdays.
If you've missed previous episodes, just click here to find links for downloading shows into your iPod or iPad.
To see a slide show of images from Dale Chihuly's sculptures at Miami's Fairchild Tropical Garden and from JoAnn's clients click here.

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