Half Way There

Almost there. Still have to do the touchy part of  applying clear tile tape to the face, Carefully lift it off, turn it over, Carefully peal off the sticky paper it is on, then Very Carefully apply it to the round substrate that will be prepped with cement thinset.

It's a one shot deal from the time tile tape is applied to the face to the actual finishing. 

This technique is called the Double Reverse application method in mosaics and can be very touchy. I am both nervous and excited - I love challenging techniques.

I chose this method after reading about it in Sonia King's Mosaic Techniques and Traditions and Sandra & Carl Bryant of Showcase Mosaics use this method exclusively for all their public art installations. Their work is beautiful.

They also work in stained glass mosaics and after reading a forum on their technique I decided to use it for this project because of the extreme complexity of design and shading. 

It sure would be nice to have them here for tips - but here I go!

(the black piece of glass by the ear is for lettering, not part of the design)

One Hundred 'Biscuits'

Tea parties are always fun. Memories of "tea and cakes" or "tea and biscuits in the garden" bring a smile and thoughts of pretty days in my neighbors garden with some sort of sponge cake and biscuits (cookies) with tea served from a favorite teapot. 

I lived in the UK for a few years while in the service. Bought a house off base about 20 minutes away in a small village by the sea. Learned all the nuances of living in the economy that cannot be experienced as a tourist or living on base surrounded by Americans. I preferred to experience the culture of another country and what better way than living in the economy where I could become a part of  the story instead of an observer. It was an unforgettable opportunity.

These charming cookies remind me of those days. They were an order placed by someone who will be making her own tea party in an inside garden since the outdoors is currently 107º. The little teapots are a bas relief sugar cookie about 3" round hand decorated and embellished with sugar crystal flowers. Each comes in a clear cello bag tied with a satin ribbon and given as party favors. Ribbon colors of blue, spring green and two shades of pink will give an impression of a festive pretty garden when placed together. Twenty teapots were done in red, white and blue to celebrate our Independence Day and this year's Diamond Jubilee in the UK. 

One hundred teapot cookies weigh a little over 13 pounds. I like to do mail art on all of my boxes when I can. The smiles begin before the box is even opened.

A NATURE Artist

At last, the article that I should have posted at the first of May. I know, kind of late, but I was sent a PDF which is not accepted to post and finally got the jpg version. For those who did not get the Tucson Lifestyle in their mailbox or rush to buy one, here is the two page spread. Nice and mentions my aussie sweetie Risa and even features my mosaic of my little dog. And no, sadly it's hard to read the article from this jpeg without a magnification via glass or zoom, so you would have to go the library to read pages 17 and 18. 

May was a great but super busy month and was gone so fast. Mother's Day orders got a little crazy and was unprepared for the response for my MoonLight Cookie Samplers. Then Memorial Day, then the Tohono Chul upcoming exhibit which will have two of my glass painting pieces. Now I am in Fourth of July preparations and laying plans for fall shows and promotions. 

I will also be adding pages to this blog on my sketchbook and process. How do I do this or that? Well I will show the how part soon. Meanwhile, you can still read this issue of May Tucson Lifestyle at your local library, one of my favorite hangouts. Did I mention how much I love books and reading?

Click to view the larger version

Seek and Find

Original Proposal

Finished Mural

Elementary School mural finished! Lettering for the school name is currently being asked for as a donation from sign and trophy companies. Hand lettering is a skill all on it's own and I will defer to a digital output that will look much cleaner than I could ever do by hand. Plus the surface is rough, making hand lettering very challenging. If there is someone out there who can donate the lettering, please contact the school or me "~)
The current sign is a temporary printout until permanent lettering is installed. Better than a blank space!

I know that Tucson will open it's heart and someone will donate the lettering. Funds are so limited that this mural was done as a pay-it-forward gesture in gratitude for all of the wonderful people who have helped me and been generous to me - often when I least expected it which made it that much sweeter.
Done with house paints and sealed with clear satin varnish.

This is a STEM focus school. Science, technology, engineering, and math. The arts are not excluded as demonstrated by this mural. There are numbers from 1 - 12 hidden in the mural for a "seek and find". The little ones especially will have fun looking for the numbers. The Monarch butterfly shows it's stages from caterpillar thru  butterfly. A little family of quail have their own special markings. R2 D2 has a cousin that is more of a gardener than a space traveler and there is our own galaxy with sun and planets and special constellation! The live volcano spews lava that cools into sedimentary layers of rock that the robot is standing on.

So start looking for those numbers and let me know how many you find!

Evening is Silver Soft and Bright

When the sky begins to turn an indigo violet the tiny bats that live in my neighborhood appear for their areal ballet. flitting, twisting, diving as they catch insects in mid air. Impossible to make out more than dark flitting shapes I am fascinated by them. These tiny mammals have conquered flight, perfected location by sonar and live in large colonies numbering in the hundreds because there is safety in numbers. 

I found out that the little bats I watch every evening are Mexican free-tail bats. There are actually four large colonies of bats that can be found at four bridges in Tucson: East Broadway bridge over the Pantano Wash,  North Campbell Avenue bridge over the Rillito,  East Tanque Verde bridge over the Rillito and the Ina road bridge at the Santa Cruz river. It's quite a spectacle at sunset when hundreds of bats fly out from under these bridges.

Bats feed on insects or plant nectar in this area and are protected by the Arizona sate law.  Other bats that can be seen in Tucson: Pallid bat, Silver-haired bat, Cave Myotis,  California myotis, Yuma myotis, Western pipistrelle, Lesser long-nosed bat, and the Big Brown bat.

The endangered Lesser Long-nosed bat and the threatened Mexican Long-tongued bats are the focus and inspiration for this little Reverse Glass Painting. They are pollinators of many of our native plants and there many postcards featuring a Saguaro blossom (state flower) and a Lesser Long-nosed bat.

These nectar feeding bats migrate south for the winter in late summer and sometimes visit the hummingbird feeders when fewer than normal blooming agave are available.

Bat Night Magic  

Reina De La Noche

 Reverse Glass Painting is the process of painting where the painting is done with the foreground first and the background is completed last. Multiple layers of paint are used in my paintings to add depth of color and each color added can affect the color underneath, creating a jewel like quality that makes the glass artwork unique. Gold and silver is often used in the paintings to give a soft shimmer. The petals of the Reina De La Noche,  Queen Of The Night,  have a faint pearl gleam like the real flowers and the Sphinx Moths have gold highlights.
This painting celebrates the very magical few nights once a year where the Night Blooming Cereus outside my window bloom in white, vanilla scented wonder. Each flower blooms only on one night, once a year. Not all bloom on the same night and I have a small gathering of friends, wine and cheese by candlelight as we watch the flowers unfold.

Both of these Reverse Glass Painted artworks will be on display and available at the Tohono Chul Park Pollinators Exhibit May 31 - August 12.

Wildcat Wilber

 Another day of succesful glass cutting and I have to say Wilber the bobcat looks pretty good. The rest of his ear and neck will be completed today.  Finishing the lettering should take of couple of marathon days of cutting and fitting.

One of the many things I love about glass is the gleaming jewel toned depth that is possible with the infinite choice of colors and textures.
No two glass sheets are alike and choosing glass for a project is a really fun and personal part of the process of my glass mosaics.

Wilber's fur, with all of the shades and texture is all from ONE sheet of glass. In art, as in life, it's what you do with what you have that makes the difference.
As a mostly self taught artist, the discoveries made in the learning process have opened unexpected doors that I would not have otherwise found. These 'discoveries' (usually in the wee hours of the night) have enriched my work, added the depth that comes from that Aha! moment when that 'door' opens and I find myself in the Land Of Possibilities - exciting!

Camping Days

Dog Star Canyon

Every year my dad would take the family on annual  summer camping trips to national parks which gave us the opportunity to really experience beautiful, pristine  areas and wildlife.

I can still recall a slide show of memories -  surreal starry nights, panoramic sunsets, and, of course, our park bear experiences.  

Thanks to dad we visited the major parks in California, Yellowstone, and a few in the four corners area.

We got to experience the beauty of the wilderness, the ugliness of humanity (in Utah we were refused service due to our race, but my dad insisted they serve us - and eventually they did), and the generosity of strangers (when stranded with a flat on a lonely stretch of road a man in a truck stopped to help us).

Spring Dance

These pieces are part of a series of my 'camper day memories'.  The first, Dog Star Canyon is inspired by the southwest canyon area of Bryce and Zion national parks and the petroglyphs. In this little mosaic world I made my own petroglyph of man's long time companion - DOG. The abstract gold thread of vintage beads adds another dimension.

The dog is painted in reverse with antique gold for a soft glow.

Our family actually stood in areas where the sandstone was layered in vibrant shades of red, brown, yellow and cream. The green of trees and shrubs popped bright against the rocky backdrops. 

Happy, trickling creeks had my sister and I soaking our feet in the cool water. We would make little boats out of leaves and twigs and watch them bob for a few moments, then swiftly disappear.  Sometimes we spotted tiny fishes and tadpoles in the rock shadows. Laughing, sparkling water color memories.  Thank you Dad.

http://suebetanzos.com/artwork/1892084_Dog_Star_Canyon.html

It's In The Eyes

Still working on this beautiful mosaic and I Love the way the cat has turned out - especially the eye (my favorite part!). It's the eyes that are the key to an animal or human artwork - that "look".

For the eyes I had the perfect one inch scrap of glass the exact shade I needed.
Every scrap of glass is saved for these "in case I need it" and eventually they get used. Same for the nose - scraps of the perfect shades of rose needed.
 Saving the letters for last since that is the least fun part for me.

Watching the piece come into focus and develop as I paint with glass is one of the most satisfying part of mosaics.

Challenging my abilities with new materials, sizes and shapes is exciting because like a story I am writing I know the beginning and the end - the middle "how" part is the discovery.

So in a sense they are picture stories written in glowing jewel colors and textures - each vibrantly different and unique by process as well as subject.

Well Hello There!

Hello out there! Seems like time is flying by way too fast. Lately I average about 5 hours of sleep, but feel pretty good. Must be because I am so excited about my new cookie store MoonLight Cookie Art, the new article of my work in Tucson Lifestyle this May - the BEST birthday present ever - and planning for a nice road trip.
The article in Tucson Lifestyle lists this blog site here instead of my main website due to a slight mix up, so here is a flyer with my main web address and work samples - I will post a few times over next month.

Click to enlarge full size

Still working on a mosaic that I love and will have finished in a week. Also now that Easter is over Mother's Day is coming up and I will have to set cutoffs for orders for cookies. I was swamped for Easter - this time I will have more control. Also working on a small mural project that, is due at the end of this month! But I wouldn't have it any other way - I love working in different media and ideas always flow!

Momma Told Me: Tasty Tuesday: MoonLight Cookies Custom Cookie Art...

Here is my first cookie review by Jenna Wood of Momma Told Me blog.

She is raffling a MoonLight Cookie and has written a super review on my cookies! I am so excited that this will bring traffic to my sites. Check out the review here:

Momma Told Me: Tasty Tuesday: MoonLight Cookies Custom Cookie Art...: Momma Told Me: It's just a cookie, eat it! I still recall the first time I discovered food that was as conceptually valid as art, as it ...

Turquoise Jack

Thoughts of blue ponies and Turquoise Jack rabbits are part of my little fantasy world where nothing is ever as it seems. As a devoted sci-fi and fantasy reader my mind loves to curl itself around alternate realities, places and beings that challenge our four cornered perceptions of reality.

Some of my reads: The Night Circus, Charles De Lint's The Onion Girl (actually all of his books!), The Greywalker Series by Kat Richardson, the juicy exciting Black Daggerhood series by J.R. Ward, Stephanie Myer's The Host.
Charles de Lint stories are wonderful where realities exist side by side, like layers of an onion. His stories are the inspiration for my turquoise Jack which will be a Jackalope when finished.
Right now it's serving as a key holder!

Studio Dog

 Moving right along with this cool mosaic. Each sheet of glass is unique - that is the beauty of working with stained glass and one of the many reasons I love working with glass. No two sheets of glass are ever the same and shopping for glass is such a pleasure for me.
I like to match the "grain" or flow of the glass with the subject; in this case the fur of Wilber the bobcat.  My reference is the graphic logo of TWC and a photograph of a real bobcat. The photo is for value reference - where are the lights & dark contrasts and middle values; where my hardest and softest edges are.
Also, for the cat I custom cut and fit each piece rather than cutting many pieces at once. More labor, but feels right and that is how my style has evolved for all animals I do in mosaic. The background will be a repeat pattern and will go much faster.  Risa - first class studio pup!

First Class Studio Dog - on the job