Miss Victoria 2

Introducing 'Miss Victoria 2'. Miss Victoria is 22 inches tall and 12 inches wide at the bottom of her skirt. She is created out of Syracuse China pattern Victoria. You may recall that 'Miss Avalon' was also created out of Syracuse China. I really, really like their china. I did some research this past summer to find out about purchasing their china direct from the manufacturer. Unfortunately, Syracuse China was sold a few years ago and the patterns are no longer in production. When we vacation in Upstate NY, I do often times come across Syracuse China. Now I feel a little more guilty breaking this china, knowing that it is no longer being made!

The shape of this china is Federal, meaning that it has sort of a fluted edge with a gold rim. I hesitated to call her 'Miss Victoria 2' as I have already done a 'Miss Victoria', but since it was the name of the china pattern and it is also in pinks, as in the original 'Miss Victoria', it seemed appropriate.

I love the rose detail on this piece, it is a beautiful, rich, deep pink. 'Miss Victoria 2' is heading over to E.S. Lawrence Gallery in Aspen later this week.

And then there were 5.....

Several months ago, a client contacted me about using her mother's china in a sculpture for herself and her sister-in-law.  I completed two sculptures using the china.  Fortunately, when these two pieces were complete, there was still enough china to create 3 more smaller sculptures!  I have just now finished these and they are with the shipper off to their new homes.  These will be gifted to my client's daughter and her 2 nieces.  What a wonderful way to remember someone special.





Kodak Theater Stairway in Smalti.....

On a recent trip to Los Angeles, we had the opportunity to visit Hollywood.  We were complete tourists and did all the things tourists do.  The kids put their hands in the hand prints at Grahmen's Chinese Theater, we took photos of the famous Hollywood sign and we visited the Kodak Theater where the Academy Awards are handed out.  How appropriate that the stairs leading to the theater are created in red smalti- just like the red carpet!  Mixed in with the red smalti are gold pieces, as in Oscar's favorite color.  What a wonderful way to commemorate the highest honor in acting with the best tile in the world!  So beautiful.... 

Commission Completed 2

This piece is the second commission sculpture I completed for a client using her mother's china.  You can scroll down inside this blog to see photographs of the first piece.  I love how the two are completely different, yet, using the same materials.  In this piece I used 2 rows of glass beads at the neckline, I have never done this before.  I like the effect and will likely use this idea again.   Let me know what you think about the two pieces and how I used the china.......

Commission Completed

I was so excited to be contacted in June by a client to create two sculptures using her mother's china.  The china had been passed down to my client and she wanted to commemorate her mother by creating a sculpture.  She generously also commissioned a second sculpture for her sister-in-law.  The challenge for me was to create two unique pieces using the same materials.  The china was mostly white with 2-3 pink roses per plate.  The stems of the roses are in a gray/black.  We agreed from the beginning that I would use pink or white beads at the neckline, however, when I was working with the china, I suggested we consider using black faceted glass beads.  The client agreed and now you see the result.  I am thrilled- there are so many things that I like about this piece.  I am delighted with how it turned out and hope that the piece will serve as a beautiful reminder to the client of her mother.

Mosaics Restoration in Italy

A wonderful website and daily email has been introduced to me by my dear friend and ardent supporter, Peggy Corrao.  When you sign up for the daily email, a treat arrives in your 'in' box each morning with something wonderful from Italy.  Today's email is a short article about an incredible mosaic restoration project currently taking place at a Villa in Sicily.  Click on the link below for the article and more pictures. 

Link to Italian Notebook Website

The New Bermuda

I created this piece using Italian and Mexican smalti.  The Italian smalti are the black and gold pieces, the Mexican smalti are the white pieces in the background.  I was experimenting at the time with creating depth and texture simply by the way the tile was cut and how/where it was laid.  I am so proud of how the hair turned out, the curls of the Queen's hair are created solely by the cut of the tile and their placement.  Using the same tile, I created the outline of her face, the eye, the profile of the nose and the mouth. Traditionally, color is relied upon to create these distinctions.  Suffice to say, this was a very difficult piece to create.

At the time I created this piece, Bermuda was undergoing some political and social changes that I wanted to address in my artwork.  The message I was trying to portray here is that our Premier at the time was not going to be happy until everyone, including the Queen, was Black.  His tagline on everything was 'The New Bermuda'.  Sadly, this Premier did not address the needs/concerns of the balance of the population of Bermuda.  A leader should be concerned with his/her entire constituancy. 

This piece was also recently re-photographed.  I am delighted with the photographer's ability to capture the details of this piece, the parts that to me, make it so enjoyable. 

Yummi Tribe Woman

I am so happy that I found a photographer in Carbondale who has the right indoor lights to photograph my mosaics up close and personal!  I have tried repeatedly to photograph this piece under different settings.  I struggled with light reflecting off the glass, whether it was flash or sunlight.  I think they did a great job and have fallen in love with this piece all over again!

Sneak Preview to my latest newsletter, coming out this week....

http://play.goldmail.com/0h5bgc9vu03y

Miss Charlston

Miss Charlston

I have a friend who recently told me a story.  The gist of the story was about how we can be so close to something happening, even danger, and have it only skirt us.  She shared about how her grandmother was passing through her dining room and just as she had cleared where the china cabinet was, it fell over onto the floor without warning; missing the grandmother by only a few inches.  While I was relieved to hear that the grandmother was unharmed, my next question was what had she done with the broken china!?! 

We are staying with friends in upstate NY and our hostess shared about how she had tripped in the butler's pantry and had broken 5 plates, beautiful ivory with a dark green ivy trim.  I have the perfect green bead that would have looked lovely with the ivy on the trim.  Sadly, they threw the broken plates away. 

I am currently working on 2 sculptures as a commission from a collector who is using her mother's china to create the sculptures.  While it is a beautiful china, the collector doesn't use it and wants to repurpose the pieces into a beautiful sculpture to remember her mother.  How wonderful.

Miss Charlston was created to use simply 3 broken plates my mother found at great store in Ft. Worth, Dishes from the Past.  They have just about every conceivable pattern of china and act as a replacement service.  The best part of the store, in the very back corner, is a 'broken shelf'.  All the plates on the shelf have been damaged in some way.  I scored 10 plates there on my last visit. 

The moral to the story- don't throw your broken plates away!  Send them to me!! 

Inspriation in London....

We spent a great weekend in London.  We enjoyed Kensington Palace- sadly, Princess Diana's dresses have been moved to the Fashion Museum in Bath.  We saw a wonderful exhibit of Grace Kelly's clothes at the Victoria and Albert Museum- I loved it and have many new ideas for dresses.  As we were walking towards Harrods, we passed the window displays for Harvey Nichols.  These photos are from the window displays.  The first one is a close up of a very large dress made of clothes pins.  Again, is it mosaic or collage?  The second grouping is a tree made of pencils.  I have also shown it up close so you can see the detail of the pencils and how a simple thing like a pencil can be divided into points, erasers etc. to create different images. What I love about this kind of art and what I do, it inspires people to view things in a new way, hopefully to look at your world in a new way. 

 

Weekend in NYC- influences abound!

I have just spent a long weekend in NYC with my husband.  We have taken the opportunity to visit several NY landmarks and to act like tourists- even though both of us have lived in the city at one time or another.  Travel is so refreshing and important, I was a flight attendant as a young adult and truly enjoy experiencing new things, cultures and influences.  The first exhibit that we saw was the King Tut exhibit created by National Geographic.  While I thought the exhibit was a little lacking for the ticket price, I enjoyed seeing the intricate details given to even the smallest of items for the pharoahs, such dedication by the artisans of the time.

Influences were everywhere, this is in a store window for the new book store at Bloomingdales.  The dress is made of advertising pages from magazines.

This is a fabulous art structure/sculpture on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum- a mosaic of bamboo!

A large mosaic portrait at the Metropolitan Museum.

We also saw a great exhibit titled 'American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity', you can definately expect to see numerous dresses in my 'Fall Collection' directly related to this exhibit at the Met.

And I had to throw this in, while I didn't see it this weekend in NY, I thought it appropriate for this blog entry!  Is it mosaic or collage!?!

My friend and mentor, Gabriella Brunner, once told me to always keep my eyes open, you never know when inspiration or objects will present themselves.

Tuckers Point Hotel & Spa in Bermuda

This is a wonderful video about the Tuckers Point Hotel & Spa in Bermuda.  They represent my work in Bermuda.  I am so proud to be associated with this property.

Video of Tuckers Point Hotel & Spa, Bermuda

Little Lolita

Introducing 'Little Lolita'....  This piece is now over at the Aspen Chapel Gallery for the Opening of 'Pssssst.....Sizzling Art' on July 21.  She is the final piece of 6 who will be shown at this exhibit.  I have been working with smaller pieces, in this piece I used the matching dessert plates from the same china pattern I used in 'Lolita'.  'Little Lolita' is actually only 10 inches tall.  I then used the 'middles' of the plates for the bodice, I like how the ivory and the white of the china work together in the bodice. 

'Lolita'

Introducing 'Lolita', I created 'Lolita' in Bermuda earlier this month for the opening at Regali, Tuckers Point Hotel.  The inspiration for this dress came from the fabulous dress Demi Moore wore to the Oscars.  It had layers and layers of ruffles and came up in the front to reveal her beautiful legs.  I love, love this design and plan to work with it again using different materials.  'Lolita' was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Greg Dorsett of Maryland.  Mr. and Mrs. Dorsett were on vacation in Bermuda to celebrate Mrs. Dorsett's Birthday.  Mr. Dorsett asked me to secretly deliver 'Lolita' to their hotel room while they were out as a special Birthday Surprise.  'Lolita' was then overly wrapped in bubble wrap and went home on the plane with them the following Monday!  Happy, Happy Birthday to Mrs. Dorsett and I hope 'Lolita' will forever serve to remind the Dorsetts of a wonderful Birthday weekend in Bermuda!

'Miss

Introducing 'Miss Ohio'. I have been working on this piece off and on for 6 months. I never, never spend that much time on a piece. This piece was so difficult for so many reasons. First, creating these layers on the skirt as part of the armature is really difficult. My hands were torn up after trying to get into those tiny little spaces with wire mesh. Then when I was concreting it, I had to create new ways to apply the concrete as my tradtional method would not reach the inner sections under each tier. As I worked in applying the tile, I had to inch into each section to adhere the mirrors. Finally, grouting into those crevices took 2 patient sessions. I am so happy to be finished with her, I can't tell you! I am thrilled with the result and hope she will find a happy home!

Miss Iris

'Miss Iris' - named for the color of tile used in the bodice.  I found this tile at the fabulous Lowes.  They are liners and the color is an absolute match for the blue and white china I use in my pieces.  I was surprised to see that the color is Iris, would have given it more of a blue name.  'Miss Iris' is part of a not what I would really call a series, but a trial using smaller busts.  She is only 15 inches tall.  She is headed, along with 'Miss New Mexico', to the E.S. Lawrence Gallery in Aspen.  Ken and Kathy Johnson will be hosting a group of PR agents on Friday night- hope my girls make a splash!

'Fairest of them All'...

'Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who's the Fairest of them All?' I know that the men who were renovating our house thought I was crazy. For any number of reasons, but particularly for me asking them (demanding really) not to throw away the broken closet door mirrors. Turns out that I now have enough mirror to make a small army of mosaic sculptures. I chose black beads and black mirror trim for the details of the dress as the Queen in Snow White was so dastardly and mean. Or simply because black is truly elegant. You decide.

The fun part...

Sometimes the work behind the scenes isn't so pretty. I love to publish posts that show a finished piece, all polished and ready for the gallery. But there is a lot, lot of work that goes before the piece is ready. I am getting ready for two shows currently, one in Bermuda and one in Aspen. I am experimenting with a smaller bust and learning my way around working on a smaller form for Aspen. It really effects what kind of tile you can use and how the I can 'handle' the piece as I work it. For Bermuda, I am prepping all my pieces, since assembly here is unreasonable with shipping. I pre-cut all the tile, I have concreted the styrofoam busts and am gathering all my materials and instruments to take with me. In these photos, you can see how I lay out the plates, beads, tiles to get a sense of how they will look together and what kind of dress design I will attempt. Sometimes I will also sketch out my ideas, I will do this for Bermuda since there will be so many pieces to complete and so many materials to bring. I don't want to forget anything! This is also my favorite part of each piece- the designing. I love laying the materials out and looking at different combinations. Sometimes how I start out to complete a piece isn't how it finishes up. The process can be a little more experimental and organic at that point. For instance, I layed out tile last week that included using a black bead interspersed through out the skirt on the dress- then forgot to include them! Organic or blonde- you decide!

KTVT Channel 11 News Clip

During the Main Street Ft. Worth Arts Festival, KTVT Channel 11 was broadcasting live. While I was hanging out in my booth, I could see them running around with cameras, crew and on camera announcers. I got to chatting with one of the camera men and the weather man. They decided to broadcast right next to my booth and then featured my pieces on air. Marketing and exposure that is priceless. From that point on, even on the same day, I had people stopping by my booth and commenting that they had seen it on TV. Finally arranged to get this clip added to my web site, easier said than done. Hope you enjoy it.

http://www.shellyhamill.com/pages/inTheNews.htm

Casart Coverings

Casart Coverings is a wonderful company based out of Denver. They do these fabulous wall designs and Lindsey Wood manages a decorating blog for Casart. Lindsey kindly included my artwork, 'Roxy' in her most recent decorating blog. I think this 'room' would be wonderful and I hope someone takes it to fruition! Thanks Lindsey!!
Click on this link to see the full article: http://www.casartcoverings.com/casartblog/archives/3242

HOWL at Visions West Gallery, Denver

This is a great shot of Visions West Gallery during the HOWL show in partnership with the National Resources Defense Council. My wolf portrait is hanging on the left wall, in the black frame, over the bench. Don't you think it is beautiful!?! Love, love this sculpture of a wolf at the front of the shot. More pictures are available on the Visions West FB Page, looks like a great turn out, sorry I had to miss it.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Denver-CO/Visions-West-Gallery/92322654709?v=wall

Wall Street Journal Article on Tuckers Point Hotel & Spa

My sculptures are in a photo of the lobby of the Tuckers Point Hotel & Spa in Bermuda in an article in the Wall Street Journal from Saturday- So fun!!!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703876404575200191239091952.html?mod=wsj_share_facebook

Miss New Mexico

When my father remarried, the newlyweds decided to move to Lake Tahoe. As a new family, we took a road trip from Texas to Nevada in a moving van, a really cool 1980's van with carpet and captain's chairs and a car. My Dad recruited his new father in law and a friend to help out, so off we went; 4 adults, 3 kids and 3 vehicles. Along the way we stopped in New Mexico. I was fascinated with all the turquoise jewelry for sale. I desperately wanted a chunky necklace or bracelet as a souvenir; I settled on a modest ring to fit my budget. Ever since, I have loved, loved turquoise jewelry. When I saw these turquoise beads last summer, I had to have them. I also really love the combination of all shades of blue with all shades of brown. I found the penny rounds with a hint of blue and brown just recently at a local tile store who was discounting unused merchandise. This dress pulls them all together. I feel as though the turquoise beads at the waist do get a little overwhelmed with the pattern on the dress and their placement, but hope that the viewer will take the time to enjoy the piece with several visits. I want the viewer to discover the turquoise beads sort of as a pleasent surprise and as the part that pulls all the other parts together.

Fun article in the Meadowbrook Shopper

http://www.greatermeadowbrooknews.com/GMN_Happenings.html

In the Collection of Aspen Re...

These images are of 'Hope', a piece I created for the Masterworks Artist in the Garden Series. The piece was created in 2008 and shown in April, 2009. 'Hope' then went on to be shown at the Grand Opening of the Tuckers Point Hotel. She drew the interest of James Fews. James works at Aspen Re. James presented images of 'Hope' to Aspen Re and they decided to add her to their collection in Bermuda. When I delivered 'Hope' to their offices, James mentioned that there had been some talk of creating a catalog of the pieces in their collection. I recommended my friend Linda Weinraub for the job. These images were shot for the catalog recently. I can't wait to see the catalog in hard copy in the near future.

Wolf Portrait Study

I have spent the last week in Texas resting after the Main St. Festival. My sister, Jill, was 9 mos. pregnant expecting her second child any day. Yesterday was a rainy day in DFW and I spent the day creating this wolf piece. I am interested in exploring the importance of the grout to a piece. While the tile is the main focus, the grout is really, really important and in this case, can define a piece. Visions West Gallery in Denver is hosting a show on behalf of the National Resources Defense Council and the theme is the Gray Wolf. I have titled this piece 'Wolf Portrait Study' as I would really like to do this piece again in Italian Smalti. Today, I became an aunt again as we welcomed Whitney Alise Phillips weighing in at 8 lbs. 13 oz. Mommy and Baby are both doing well.

Yesterday I delivered 5 sculptures to Carson Art Gallery in Dallas. They have an 11,000 square foot gallery and have been in business for 26 years. I met Diane Carson at the Main St. Arts Festival this past weekend. Diane and her team will be entertaining 200 Interior Decorators who specialize in hotel properties on Thursday night. Coincidentally, the theme for the event is fashion!

The final day of the Main St. Festival is today. Yesterday saw the crowds grow and at several points during the day there was a river of people moving together in front of my booth. I had to move the sculptures inside the tent for fear of them getting knocked over. The comments about my work have been so positive and inspiring. It was fun to hear people say that they saw my pieces on the news. I have met some wonderful people and overall, this has been a really great event. My favorite quotes from yesterday came from 2 little girls, both about 5 years old. One said emphatically, 'That is just beautiful'. The second said, 'Even the buttons on the back are pretty.'