About a year ago, I was visiting some friends, Laurie and Dan, and we were talking about mosaics.

I took it home that night to see if I could figure out what painting it was based on. I posted the above photo on Facebook and tagged some artist and art historian friends of mine to see what came up. Within a few hours, my friend and former drawing teacher Christy had identified it as a painting from 1931 by Jose Clemente Orozco called Zapatistas Marching:

Orozco was known as one of ‘los tres grandes’ (the big three) Mexican muralists, along with Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Each of their styles differed a lot but contained similar content: they depicted Emiliano Zapata, the main leader of the peasant revolution, who had been killed in battle in 1919. This particular painting depicts Zapata’s followers, known as Zapatistas, marching to their death. There is a somber darkness and heaviness to the piece, with a lot of black and red.

So, I began the search for tiles that were similar in thickness, color and texture to the ones Seymour had used to begin the piece. Laurie even searched the attic of Dan’s mother’s house to see if he had stored away the rest of those tiles, but did not find any. I visited with the good people at Arrow Tile, the local specialty tile store, to see if they could help. We did not find anything suitable in ceramic tile, mostly because the tiles he used were extremely thin.

I decided to use glass to finish the job because the thickness matched perfectly and the colors were pretty close. The daunting part for me was getting the pieces to fit together with as much precision as Seymour had. His cuts were beautifully shaped and the rendering of the figures in the bottom was beautiful. He had left me with a couple of large faces to complete, which are the hardest subject matter for me in a mosaic.

I worked to the best of my ability and finished this piece in time for Laurie to surprise Dan with it for Christmas this year. While working on it, I imagined Seymour and his incredible technical skill, patiently piecing together the crowd of peasants marching, wondering what his particular interest was in that subject. I thought of my own grandfather, Edward Sussmann, who, during that same time in the 1970’s, was teaching art at a high school in Forest Hills, less than 5 miles away. Something about the smell of the wood reminded me of my grandfather’s paintings, which are all I have to know him by, because he died when I was only 3 years old. He had spent years in his earlier life hitchhiking and painting his way across the country, his paintings in a large trunk. I’m now imagining that he and Seymour knew each other, though I will never know.

My work as an artist has always made me feel connected to my grandfather and I felt so happy that, in some way, he showed up for me in this project. I am happy to share the outcome of this collaboration, 30 years in the making, and I am grateful to Dan and Laurie for the chance to bring this work up out of the closet to where it now hangs on the wall in the main entryway of their home.

Skin Therapy: My Story

Making mosaics involves a lot of repetitive motion. Nipping glass and tiles causes continuous contraction of the muscles and tendons in the hand. About a year and a half ago, I was working on a very large commission (a total of about 35 square feet of mosaic) and this repetitive motion caught up with me in a painful way. I had a tight deadline and so I was working 10 + hour days. One morning, I found that I couldn’t lift my coffee cup (a tragedy) and so I knew I needed to take action.  I had to keep working so I could finish on time!

The back story here is that for the past three years, I had been studying herbal medicine with a wonderfully wise and gifted herbalist, Brittany Nickerson www.thymeherbal.com and so I had learned how to use plants to make home remedies for many common things. I already believed in the power of plants to enhance our lives and our health. I had been reading about the importance of paying attention to what I put on my skin- as the skin is so permeable and whatever goes on the skin goes right into the bloodstream.  Avoiding products with unrecognizable and harmful ingredients was important to me. I’ll talk more about the specifics of this in another post.

I went to Cornucopia, a local health food store and asked for a skin salve that would help tendon pain. They recommended a wonderful product made by a company called Kuumba. Massaging this onto my hand, wrist and forearm (along with altering the way I used my glass nipper) reduced the pain in a miraculous way. Looking at the list of ingredients and seeing that they were all familiar to me, I began to think that I could make my own blend.

Over the past 10 months, I have been crafting a variety of herbal body products, using a few of my favorite plants and sharing them with friends to get feedback. The consensus has been “You have to start selling these products!”.  I”ve made salves for reducing repetitive motion strain and bruising, salves for cuts and cracks in the skin (grouting mosaics causes this in a big way!) salves for itchy heat rash and bug bites, lotions and body butters for moisturizing and nourishing the skin, lip balms, room sprays and massage oils. I feel really good about all of the ingredients I use. My rule is: if I wouldn’t eat the product, then I wouldn’t put it on my skin! (not that I necessarily recommend eating them, but it’s not out of the question!).

After months of trying out various formulations, recipes and having fun being creative, I am now finally launching my first two products, with a third on the way very soon and more to follow hopefully in the next few months.

My line of products is called Skin Therapy and the first two products are: Whipped Body Butter, and Hand Repair Moisturizing Salve. The label features a mosaic that I made of a calendula flower (one of the main ingredients!).

I make both of these in very small batches (6 ounces of product at a time) so that I can have a high level of control over the outcome. I infuse the calendula and comfrey into the olive oil in a way that does not involve heating the oil (which can cause the oils to break down and lose quality). I work in a professional and very clean manner, in my home kitchen. I infuse the products, and the process with love and the intentions of helping and bringing happiness to people. This part is important to me, regardless of whether you believe it makes a difference or not. I am happy to answer questions you may have about the products.

You can read all about these products on my website, including information about how to purchase them, as well as profiles of each ingredient. Click here

Please contact me with any questions.

This is my personal story and it is not meant to treat, diagnose or cure any illnesses or diseases and should not be used in the place of medical advice.

I was at Snow Farm again this weekend, teaching a 3 day class. While no two groups are ever the same, I am struck by how distinctly different this group was from my last group 2 weeks ago. This weekend, the studio was filled with a palpable sense of curiosity, experimentation and willingness to take chances. There were five amazing women in the class, each with varying levels of experience. They supported and helped each other in a way that was inspiring and made me feel very proud. One student, who has taken several classes with me, even helped me do some of the demos. The learning, I believe, went way beyond the stunning finished works, but was evident in the way each person embraced the process- asking questions, pushing through moments of uncertainty, and even deciding to change direction completely.  I was reminded of my own beginnings with mosaics and the excitement I felt about the process of playing with the arrangement of shapes and allowing myself to react to it. I am so grateful for the experience and for the chance to work with and learn from such exceptional women. 

Here are the finished works!

And here are a few pictures of the work in progress.

The magic of teaching and learning really came alive for me this weekend. 

I will be teaching two more classes at Snow Farm this year, August 2-8 and October 24-25.

Student work, made by Kate M. 

I just got home from teaching a weeklong class at Snow Farm. What an incredible week! Even though it’s only 25 minutes from my house, I decided to live there for the week to make it as much of an immersion experience as possible. So basically, I got to spend my week in the most beautiful place in the world, with other artists and students, doing what I love most, and not having to worry about cooking or washing dishes!

The group was organized through Road Scholar, so it was ages 55+. There were 8 students in my class, with various levels of experience.. About half of them were brand new to mosaics and  the other half had some experience, including one woman who has taken my weeklong class at Snow Farm for the past 3 years in a row. Everyone was from out of state, including 2 women from the west coast and one from the south. 

They  all made beautiful work, and demonstrated one of my favorite things about mosaics: everybody has a different style and approach to this medium, and the work is always so varied and exciting! I learned new things from the work they did, particularly through problem solving some of their ideas about using unorthodox found objects, like beaded chain to make a flower, and adding raised components. One guy even found a rock outside and turned that into a base for a mosaic! 

I taught them both the direct and indirect methods. Most of them preferred working in the indirect method (building a mosaic temporarily on contact paper, flipping it over, and then attaching it all at once to the final substrate from the back side). Four students made stepping stones. My proud teacher moments came when I saw my students helping each other, and overheard them explaining the process to others, which told me that they really understood and took pride in what they were learning.  

We finished the week with a Gala and Auction, where they got to display their creations. Some people donated a piece to the auction to raise money for improvements to Snow Farm.  The class collaborated to make a stepping stone to donate to the auction. It turned out beautifully!

I left with a feeling of tired contentment. 

And I’ll be back in just a few days to teach the Memorial Weekend Intensive (Saturday thru Monday). My class still has a few spaces, so this is your chance to get in on the Smashing Good Times.