Artisan Gallery - All Manner of Mosaics

January 19 - March 29, 2007

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The Artisan Gallery at Woman Made begins 2007 with ‘All Manner of Mosaics,’ an exhibition that continues the exploration of the materials and techniques being used by women artisans. In our call for art we sought original crafts from all disciplines, utilizing traditional, contemporary and conceptual approaches to the mosaic process. The work/s had to be comprised of three-dimensional materials that when placed, create the surface of an object, or an object. There were no restrictions on the nature of the material or process as long as it conforms to the concept of a mosaic.The artists’ responses include: jewelry, quilting, sculpture, and functional objects.

We welcome Chicagoan Karen Ami as our featured mosaic artist. Karen is the founder and Executive Director of The Chicago Mosaic School. She says of her art: “I use art to create a visual dialogue to help explain our human emotional and bodily presence in the world. Sculpture and mosaic are a means of personal expression are elements that I draw on to understand my body and the earth around me. I explore the issues associated with our psycho-physical sense of awareness by combining materials such as smoothness of clay and the brittleness of glass and contrasting light and surfaces. I sometimes use distorted hearts/organs/seeds as metaphors for the body, employing color and texture to reveal the emotion that lies beneath the surface.

“Creating art is an integral part of my life. I create as a woman, as a mother, as participant in this world. I discover new things about myself and nature as a work is formed, piece by piece And, I believe a sense of humor enhances the colorful, amusing, and strange struggles that make us human. I interpret and render images in a stylistic, unified, yet fragmented manner. Mosaics satisfy my urge to make things whole.”

Artists Represented:

Karen Ami is joined in the exhibition by mosaic artists Valerie Alduen, Chicago; Sherry Dorst, Napa, CA; Julie Burkhart Haid, Hudson, WI; Vanessa Wright Hollifield, Winston Salem, NC; Gisele Perreault, Chicago, IL; Gwyn Kaitis Roland, Joliet, IL; Staci Sterenberg, Chicago, IL; Beth Ann St. George, Tempe, AZ; Leann Wooten, Chicago, IL.

Other exhibiting Artisan Gallery artists include: Angela Askin, Beth Bartley, Molly Bitters, Jill Buckingham, Sarah Chapman, Lori C. Coan, Linda Deardorff, Judy B. Freeman, Sandra Golbert, Judy Gray, Caroline Haurie, Laura C. Hewitt, Dorothy Hughes, Ala Jaron, Stephanie Marder, Natalie Prevost-Mero, Emily McCormick, Emily Murphy, Kimberly Nikolaev, Elizabeth Parrock, Carmen M. Perez, Elizabeth Rhoads Read, Karen Roberts, Liz Vercruysse, Emily Watson and Lisa Williams.

Juror(s): Artisan Gallery Committee: Mary Stoppert and Carmen M. Perez