Inside the Spin-Mosaic Studio

Anne of Green Gables would say naming this work of art, "Monochromatic Mosaic in Browns" lacks imagination. I couldn't agree more. The name is temporary!

This one-color series is a Coulorist's Celebration. While creating these commissions for Arts for Learning of Indiana, I found myself so peaceful. Color is therapeutic! I began posting photos on social media one at a time in hopes of adding a smile to anyone else's day who may find that...they feel what I feel... about the spirit of color.

It has been said that you will see a lot more animals on a safari by going 10 miles an hour vs. 30 miles an hour. Color is like that. Color is like poetry...is like a safari.

I sent out this photo; and I got poetry in return! Colourists may be less of an endangered species of art-minded souls than I thought. Are you in our tribe? Can you relate to a colourist's epiphany?

When asked if anyone would like to help me name these pieces, many fun and insightful responses came back my way. My 8-year old has had a blast reading these! Thanks so much those who gifted your thoughts! We picked the top 5 for this piece, and there are many more color panels coming your way!--

"Sandlewood Walking" -- C. Ingram
"Dunes" -- G. Lillis

"Caramel Swirl Latte" -- A. Gervasi

"Mocha Cafe' con Leche" -- S. Hoy

"Never Ending Stairs" -- J. Soetens

What is a colourist's epiphany?

Epiphany: Like one final gong of a base drum as the marching band stomps off the green before a big game; an epiphany lights the soul in one swift swoop. Every minute after is a new game.

Once in awhile, we travel through life and are suddenly stopped in mid-step. It's as if time stands still. We suddenly connect with something. An epiphany? In other contexts, it's love-at-1st-sight.

Colourist: When I saw the word, colourist for the first time, it was like a memory of a future I knew I owned: an epiphany. I new it was MY word. The children's TV program, Sesame Street, has a "Word of the Day!". I knew this was a "Word of my Life.".

Rounding the top of an elegant staircase in a hotel along an inlet shore of Lake Michigan, an artist of glass self-identified as a colourist in her written description. Her small work hung on the wall at the top of the stairs, nested in a normal, square, black, uninteresting frame. But, oh, the way the swirls of color blended and twisted!

She identified herself not as an artist, but a colourist. Isn't every artist a colourist? Apparently not; not "colourist with a "u".

Color-with-a-'"u" is the renaissance, imaginative all-world version, like Anne-with-an-"e" from the beloved classic, Anne of Green Gables. Anne, a red-headed misfit orphan girl imagines her name spelled more magnificently than the 3-lettered name, "Ann" given her at birth.

As a kid, not one of my spelling lists included the word, "colourist." Maybe, it's not a real word? I looked it up. It is a real word. According to Webster's Dictionary, a colorist is a person who uses color. Well, Webster does not cater to the heart of an artist.

According to this artist, a colourist is "a person who loves, lives, uses, paints, blends, breathes, is dazzled by, arranges for fun and lingers long over color. This definition stretches beyond Webster to the very sinews of the mental process of studio creation. 

Lets state this in a different way-- 

A person who colors adds color where there is no color. Cool. Ok.

A colorist is a person who adds more interesting color where color should be. Better.

A colourist with a "u"--is a person who gives life to color because color alone is beautiful by itself, within and beyond the object it is attached to or the purpose it is fulfilling.

Within the category of Artist, I am a colourist like this glass artist; not a Sesame Street color-of-the-day type of colorist, but a Colourist with a capital C, a "u" in the middle, and scripted in a bold calligraphic flourish. So, I will continue creating---one color at a time: quite literally. After all, an artist doesn't experience a "memory of their future" every day...

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*If you would like to be updated when new artwork is posted within this series, enter your contact information in the Newsletter at the Home Menu Bar.

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 **special thanks to my artist-mom who created the most stunning hand-painted color wheel Iv'e ever seen once upon a time. Each little swatch was the shape of a dancing tear drop. Remember that? You had it sitting not the kitchen table for days. When noone was around; I would just stare and admire.

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This series was created with recycled scraps from School Art Walls. Variations of single color celebrate tactile-rich organic motion within each potter's-wheel-spun blade-cut acrylic mosaic. Solo or mix-and-match panels can hang in vertical or horizontal orientation to create a perfect arrangement for your space.

Contact me at the Home Menu above for a custom mosaic quote from paint swatches of your choice! Open-edition and mirror-image prints available through Fine Art America. Click to view.