We are so very grateful to all of the artists who have exhibited at Andamento!
Sarah Fishbein - Pop Art Mosaics
Pop allow us to challenge social norms in a way that is fun, bright, loud and bold. It allows Sarah Fishbein to challenge our perceptions of gender roles, women empowerment, sexuality, masculinity, passion and fun.
Glass art and mosaics is a medium that embraces the colors, textures and the freedom to push boundaries. Sarah often use reflective, colored mirrored tile and glitter glass in her works, allowing them to change and dance with brilliance, as the day’s light moves throughout the room. She cuts and positions each piece of glass by hand and deeply feels each character coming to life.
The romantic comics from the 50-70’s were filled with emotional drama and gender stereotypes. Sarah’s works are inspired by this era of graphic art, as she challenges the thoughts and issues of today.
Darcel Deneau
Detroit has been a source of inspiration for Darcel Deneau for over 20 years. Using glass and objects she finds around the city, she builds images of Detroit that parallel its current growth, finding that there’s a striking similarity between the approach to her process and Detroit’s transformation.
Her work has been widely collected and publicly displayed. Huntington Place, (formerly Cobo Center) in Detroit purchased a large-scale mosaic as part of their permanent collection and Darcel was commissioned to paint a 29’ x 7’ mural at the Garage Grill and Fuel Bar in Northville, Michigan.
Darcel has received several awards including a prestigious Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellowship in 2021 and her work was recognized as Best of Show in the Anton Art Center’s 2020 Michigan Fine Arts Competition juried by Salvador Salort-Pons. In addition, she generously contributes to the art community and is asked regularly to be a guest juror for local galleries and/or art organizations including this year’s annual CCS Alumni Exhibition. For more than 15 years she has been a member of Detroit Artists Markets, (DAM), exhibition committee, and, after serving as DAM Board Chair she was elected as a lifetime honorary board member. Currently, she serves as secretary of the College for Creative Studies, (CCS), Alumni Council and visits schools and art organizations as a guest speaker several times a year.
Robyn Sue Miller
Robyn begins her mosaics by creating individual ceramic pieces that are inspired by nature and reflect her passion for color, texture, shapes and patterns. These original pieces are merged with shards of glass, beads and vintage dishes. The magic happens when she combines these elements to create a story that expresses her joy and aesthetics. Robyn graduated from Pratt Institute followed by a Masters Degree from Tyler School of Art. After having taught art in the Philadelphia School District for 37 years, Robyn retired in 2013 and began creating her own ceramic mosaics full time in her studio. She is a charter member of the Mosaic Society of Philadelphia and exhibits her work in local galleries and venues. For the last nine years Robyn has also participated in P.O.S.T. (Philadelphia Open Studio Tours).
Julie Christmann
Julie Christmann is an award-winning artist, creating earth-inspired mosaic art since 2012. Her fascination with the history of mosaics led to her love of stone and smalti, a Venetian glass used in ancient mosaics throughout the Byzantine Era. These materials are hand-cut with the traditional hammer and hardie, a tool used as far back as 400 BC. Borrowing from the ancient traditions, each piece is carefully set into a bed of mortar to create a unified and timeless work of art.
For Julie, cutting into a piece of marble, slate, or other stone is a mystifying experience. There is a timelessness and subdued beauty to this material that speaks to us without words. In our modern world, this primal simplicity invites connection back to our earth and our humanity. Through Julie’s work, she hopes to bring this sense of connection into the heart of the viewer.
Cinder Hypki
Cinder Hypki is an artist, educator and writer living in Upper Fells Point Baltimore where she maintains a vibrant mosaic studio for her workshops, commissions, staging ground for community projects, and for creating her own work.
From a beach-combed sea glass and pottery shard backsplash on an island in the Canadian Maritimes to mandalas in motion in Baltimore, “talking stones”, a beloved series of palms at sunset, or colorful ceramic tile murals for elementary schools, Cinder uses mosaics to speak the language of the moment and the place. Her mosaics are tools for storytelling, celebration and discovery. Increasingly, Cinder designs workshops to focus on encouraging creative expression for thriving for all ages in her studio — a safe and joyful space where craft and creativity are encouraged.
Barbara Svoboda
We are thrilled to bring you the work of another local mosaic artist! Barbara is a resident of Catonsville, MD. Barbara taught art for 33 years in elementary schools in Anne Arundel County and has taken mosaic classes with Isaiah Zagar, Susan Crocenzi, Gila Rayberg, Rick Shelly, Bonnie Fitzgerald, Yulia Hanansen.
She is also a teaching artist, teaching mosaics in her home studio, and also jewelry classes through the Baltimore Bead Society.
Barbara has had a number of commissions, and her work has shown at the Creative Alliance, the Howard County Center for the Arts, Agape Gallery at Salem Lutheran, and Perspectives Gallery in Ellicott City. She is proud to say she worked with the American Visionary Arts Museum team to create part of the exterior mosaic that is on the roof of the museum.
For more on Barbara: https://bakerartist.org/portfolios/barbara-svoboda
Aya Kinoshita
Aya has travelled from Tokyo, to Melbourne, Paris, Tunis, New York, Copenhagen, and now is happily settled in Lancaster, PA! She has worked with international visual and performing artists and done Doctoral research in Art Museum Management. She creates her own mosaic art with a stunning range of materials and styles and is a gifted teacher for individuals, groups, kids, adults, and community projects. See more of Aya’s work: https://ayatrapeze.wixsite.com/mosaics
Susan Nanna Casbarro
Susan began dabbling with mosaics approximately 20 years ago, but only got truly inspired during the past few years.
The intricate nature of mosaics allows the artist to combine various facets of her inner and outer world into a cohesive whole. Susan draws inspiration from life, nature and fellow artists as well as the colors and textures of the glass itself, blending each piece of glass into works that express themes of reinvention and reincarnation through artistic expression. The process of creating mosaics is both meditative and invigorating, as there is always something new to learn.
Recently retired from teaching Math and looking for a new start, she created the Glistening Glass Studio, https://www.susancasbarro.com where she conducts classes in beginning & intermediate mosaics.
Karen Wilson of Stardust Artworks®
Karen is inspired by the versatility of glass and glass as a connecting medium, a healing medium, something that builds a community of caring among artists and audiences. She loves to combine shapes, colors, textures of glass in as many directions as there are stars in the sky – from funky and silly to graceful and serene.
Karen thinks of glass as stardust, as being made from tiny specks of sand that the universe brings together limited only by the artist’s imagination. There are unlimited techniques in kiln-formed glass. Anything you can imagine you can do with kiln-formed glass. Karen is the founder of Stardust Artworks® for learning, teaching, healing, creating and building community with kiln-formed glass.
To learn more, visit www.StardustArtworks.com
Bonnie Fitzgerald
Bonnie Fitzgerald is the founder and owner of Maverick Mosaics. Since 2006 Maverick Mosaics has specialized in unique learning experiences and creating beautiful art. Bonnie has been the instructor of Contemporary Mosaics for the Smithsonian Institution’s Studio Arts Department in Washington, D.C. for the past 5 years. She also leads mosaic inspired tours for the Smithsonian’s Resident Associates program.
In her most recent personal creations hand made materials are mixed with traditional mosaic material. Tinted mortar, ceramic elements, stone, smalti , shells, oddities of nature, all find their way into her work. Lots of hidden surprises are imbedded in the setting bed giving the viewer a new experience every time they visit the work. The clay studio was Bonnie's first love and that mud on her hands finds its way into her work to this day.
To learn more visit www.maverickmosaics.com
Shona D’Cruz
Shona D'Cruz does not remember a time she didn't create art. As a child growing up in India, Shona has vivid memories of cobbling up arts and crafts as gifts for friends. This set the stage for a world of artistic exploration in her elementary school years and an event decor business in her teens.
Shona creates one-of-a-kind jewelry including micromosaic, as well as metal clay, mosaic and fused glass art. Shona’s work is constantly changing and evolving. Her most recent art features pollinators and flowers, subjects close to her heart.
Shona was awarded an artist residency through ArtsFairfax, completed in the spring of 2021 at Rocky Run Middle School in Fairfax, VA focusing on ocean pollution. Shona has sold work at The Art League at the Torpedo Factory, as well as at West Elm pop ups in Merrifield, VA and local art shows.
To learn more visit www.bluehyacinthmosaics.com
Jane Pettit
Jane Pettit is a mixed media mosaic artist. She is known for her unique sculptural shapes and provocative juxtaposition of materials. She has a talent for depicting attitude using minimalist shapes in her 2D art. Vivid color, texture and reflected light are hallmarks of her work. She creates contemporary colorful art whimsy and offers contemporary outdoor sculpture for sale.
Jane has exhibited at galleries in NYC, Connecticut, Bucks County, PA, Delaware, and many galleries in the DC area. She also does private commissions for Washington area residents and her work is in collections locally as well as in homes from Vermont to Florida.
“Show your true colors by the art you surround yourself with. I choose happy.”
To learn more visit www.janepettit.com
Dee Ruff
Dee Ruff has had a rich and much varied background (Psychology, Social Work, Massage, Needlepoint, Gardening) that since 2012 has culminated in a study of mosaics, one of the most ancient and durable forms of art. Through intensive self-study and professional studies with internationally renowned mosaic artists, Dee has developed her own artistic voice, trademarked under the name Illuminated Shards®.
In her contemporary, abstract works of art, Dee creates a modern-day alchemy, combining textures from the natural world, colors (utilizing meticulously cut and placed art glass), and employing embedded reflective elements that create unique effects of light within the mosaics.
Dee’s work comes to Andamento Gallery from her home in Southern Arizona.You can see her work at www.BlackCatMosaics.com.
Serendipity
Remembrance
Flourishing
Karen Singer
Karen earned a Bachelor of Arts at Pitzer College in Claremont, CA and a Masters of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania. She did independent work in printmaking at Ecole Des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and was awarded an apprenticeship at the Moravian Pottery and Tileworks in Doylestown, PA. Though Karen’s primary medium is ceramic tile, she has also worked in a variety of media including plaster relief sculpture, etching and carved wood. She has extensive experience in collaborative mural projects with various communities from preschool children to senior citizens. She is particularly adept at engaging the participation of people at multiple skill levels to create a work of art. This process builds a sense of community, with no compromise in the quality and beauty of the finished project.
Karen Singer has been designing and fabricating custom ceramic murals, awards and donor recognition for clients across the United States for 21 years. Her extensive client list includes the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA), Ronald McDonald House (Jacksonville, FL and Baltimore, MD), and Doylestown Hospital (Doylestown, PA).
Carol Stirton-Broad
Carol’s degree in ceramics from Tyler School of Art was a very good jumping off point for her explorations into mosaics and glass. She embraces the practice of mixed media mosaics, is discovering the joys of silk screening on clay, and likes sewing her own clothing. She maintains a full teaching schedule in Philadelphia. Working at Fleisher Art Memorial, the Maine Line Art Center, Abington Art Center, and in her own studio. Carol also manages to take a lot of workshops. She has attended courses at Orsoni in Venice, Italy, the Scuola Art del Mosaico in Ravenna, Italy, and frequently, at the Chicago Mosaic School.
As much as she enjoys teaching, learning new techniques, and making art, she also enjoys sharing her practice and participates in exhibitions frequently. Two of her favorites were at Philadelphia’s Magic garden, where she participated in the group show Shattering Expectations (2014) and followed that up with a solo show there in 2015.
Carol is also a founding member of the Mosaic Society of Philadelphia and an enthusiastic member of the Society of American Mosaic Artists.
Emily Luking
Emily Luking is an emerging fiber artist from Baltimore, Maryland. She got her B.F.A. in fibers from Savannah College of Art and Design. Her work plays with the way the senses of touch and sight interact with one another, creating explosive texturescapes that combine traditional fiber art processes - such as crochet, dye, and beading - with an eclectic mix of found objects and recycled materials. These fibrous mosaics are abstractions of her own emotions, channeled through the filter of synesthesia, which she experiences as moving shapes triggered by touch sensations.
Pris Ewing and Robyn Abrams
Pris is a self-taught Outsider Artist with no formal art education nor childhood exposure to art due to living in remote locations. She creates mosaic art to please herself and many times the materials and colors used in her mosaics reflect her mood and feelings at the time. Her main inspiration for mosaics is a constant fascination with color combinations and textures. Pris is also the owner and operator of Murano Millefiori, the single largest supplier of Italian millefiori and glass products outside of the factory in Murano/Venice, Italy.
Robyn’s artistic journey began with painting murals and works on canvas until the love of mosaics took center stage. Robyn is fascinated by the endless creative possibilities of mosaic art. The ability to create 3-D mosaic sculptures using variety of unusual materials one day, and work on a stained glass portraits the next day is a source of constant challenge and excitement. Robyn believes that creation is one of life’s greatest joys, and mosaic art gives us this possibility. Robyn has shared her love and joy of creating mosaics by volunteering with children on the autistic spectrum at MarbleJam Kids in Bergen Co., NJ. and mosaic workshops with residents of Project Home in Philadelphia, PA.
Founded in 2000, Art with a Heart brings interactive visual arts classes into schools, community centers, group homes, shelters, permanent housing facilities, hospitals, and senior housing facilities.
In addition to its interactive art classes, Art with a Heart has complementary initiatives, including a job program (HeARTworks), service learning opportunities, community service projects, public art efforts, a social enterprise/retail store, HeARTwares, and a leadership program.
Andamento Gallery is please to spread the word and help raise funds for Art with a Heart. For this exhibit, we are proudly showing mosaic work created in their classes and workshops. Full of color and sparkle, brimming with energy and fun, we hope you will come and enjoy and maybe take home a mosaic, supporting the work of this amazing organization.
Cutting Edge Mosaics: Kelley Knickerbocker, Carol Talkov & Meghan Walsh
These three mosaic artists are exploring and pushing the boundaries of contemporary mosaics. Their work is known throughout the country and beyond. Having their art together here at Andamento was a true gift and privilege.
Kelley Knickerbocker:
“I expend a lot of energy trying to impose order on the chaos of my existence, with varying degrees of success. The process of making art is an extension of that effort. The longer I do it the more I see that this is how the universe teaches me to embrace the unruly, paradoxical, and awkward, and recognize their beauty and necessity.”
Kelley’s ruggedly dimensional mosaic artworks are a textural distillation of her fascination with contrast, material properties and the technical challenges of mosaic construction, and garnered her the 2015 Innovation in Contemporary Mosaic award from the American Society of Mosaic Artists. Her work is widely collected and regularly exhibited in the US and abroad.
Carol Talkov:
“In creating my mosaics I try to achieve an emotional response from the viewer that appeals to all of the senses. The materials I choose become integrated with each other to form a narrative, using the tools of texture, color, line and composition to create tension or harmony. It is the unique quality of each piece that intrigues me but ultimately it is the relationship between those materials that propels me forward into the journey.”
Carol studied theatrical design, worked in NYC as a theatrical costume fabricator, then became a successful business owner and manufacturer. She enhanced her mosaic skills at prestigious schools and studios in Italy and now continues exploring and developing her unique mosaic design style.
Meghan Walsh:
My work draws upon themes of memory, place, time and the balance of death and rebirth. As technology, communications and transportation have minimized the impact of the separating oceans, lakes, mountains and deserts, these natural landscapes are no longer as barriers but primordial connectors, archives of wisdom. As our world climate changes, what is it asking of us? Does it know something that we have yet to discern?
Meghan is an artist and architect, speaker and instructor. Her work has been shown throughout the U.S. and beyond.
Jo Alexander
There isn't a time in my life when I did not think of myself as an artist. I fashioned my first mosaics when I was six years old by using broken bits of bottles, gathered from under a Tulip Poplar tree in Chinquapin Park. I took my treasures home and glued them to the cardboard sheets that came in the packages of my mother's nylon stockings.
As an adult I studied oil painting, charcoal and pastel with David Zuccarini of Ellicott City. In his studio, I was most inspired by the still life paintings, especially the florals, of the Dutch Masters.
Fifty years after I fashioned my first mosaics on cardboard stock, mermaids lured me back into working with glass! These sirens of the deep are watery, glittery, and shimmery, and they are the expression of glass art that most people associate with me today.
Rick Shelley
Rick is a mosaic instructor at the American Visionary Arts Museum, with works sold in various galleries and shops. Also showing were works by two of Rick’s former students, Nina Tou and Diane Elliott
Seeing Red
Rebecca Campbell
My current work is a reflection of Lake Superior's Chequamegon Bay area.
I link art and nature in a way that draws attention to, and generates a deeper appreciation for, the interdependent habitats and ecosystems supporting the diverse flora and fauna of the Chequamegon Bay area.
These dynamic, whimsical mixed-media mosaics incorporate an assortment of ceramic tile,stained glass, and found objects such as pottery and tile shards, buttons, bicycle chains,flatware, bullet shell casings, beads and vintage jewelry. They also include hand-made stamped tiles that convey information, quotes from literature, ideas and emotions about the particular animal or plant, such as scientific information, clutch size, nesting habits, diet, habitat and calls.
For more, go to www.HungryForTheSky.com
Patty Van Dolson
I like shiny. Bold colors and sparkle make me happy. Mosaic, with its complexity of multiple bits and pieces, its light-gathering myriad of facets and textures, and its ever-changing sparkle of iridescent colors and shine is emotionally up-lifting and spiritually recharging. . . but the clock is ticking...literally.
I have been fighting Stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer(which means that it is incurable and terminal) since 2011. I have had more than 100 chemotherapy treatments, multiple surgeries and radiation.
Art is a form of communication between the artist and the viewer. As much as I do not want to be defined by my breast cancer, it is now intrinsically intertwined in my persona and affects every aspect of my life and art
Art is Man's attempt to portray and communicate the profundity of life experiences. Everything about it interests me, but particularly colors, composition, and light. The juxtaposition and balance of shadows and light, mass and sky, and Nature’s infinite play of textures, patterns, and shapes never ceases to appeal to my senses.
These mosaic panels reflect my life experiences and emotions using bits and pieces like those that have shaped and created the individual that is uniquely me.
For more, go to www.Shardsofreflection.com
Stardust
Yulia Hanansen
Queen of the Morning Mist
Birds of Paradise
Yulia Hanansen
Yulia was born in 1972 in Moscow, Russia. She lived in Russia, Uzbek Republic, Lithuania, New York City, Ann Arbor, MI, and is currently residing in the charming city of Baltimore. She is a second-generation mosaic artist and has been professionally involved in mosaic making since 2001. The mission of her Mosaic Sphere Studio is to build public awareness about mosaics, and to exhibit the superb qualities of mosaic techniques. Mosaics are made for commission, or they can be purchased as ready-made pieces. Pieces include architectural installations, back-splashes, wall pieces, public and community projects.
Yulia is a recipient of numerous awards for her mosaic and printmaking artwork, including “Best in Show” prize at Mosaic Arts International, 2011.
Yulia’s latest works represent her fascination with themes of nature, climate change, cosmos, and a connection of human beings to it. Her personal artwork uses layered glass mosaic technique, where tiles are glued on top of each other. This technique is about the infinite. Like in a brush-stroke painting, there is no end to a number of the brush-strokes that can be applied to the work surface.
Yulia’s works have been exhibited in the galleries nationwide.
To see more of her work: http://mosaicsphere.com
Yulia Hanansen
Bonnie Fitzgerald
Bonnie Fitzgerald is the founder and owner of Maverick Mosaics. Since 2006 Maverick Mosaics has specialized in unique learning experiences and creating beautiful art. Bonnie has been the instructor of Contemporary Mosaics for the Smithsonian Institution’s Studio Arts Department in Washington, D.C. for the past 5 years. She also leads mosaic inspired tours for the Smithsonian’s Resident Associates program.
Much of Bonnie’s works are large-scale architectural installations. Mosaic Arts International Exhibition honored her in 2017 with a juror’s choice award for her site-specific work at the Palmer Park Community Center located in Lanham, MD.
Considered an “expert in the field’ Bonnie has authored two best selling books, both published by Trafalgar Square, London. Her first book has been translated into 5 languages.
In her most recent personal creations hand made materials are mixed with traditional mosaic material. Tinted mortar, ceramic elements, stone, smalti , shells, oddities of nature, all find their way into her work. Lots of hidden surprises are imbedded in the setting bed giving the viewer a new experience every time they visit the work. The clay studio was Bonnie's first love and that mud on her hands finds its way into her work to this day.
To learn more visit www.maverickmosaics.com
Cascade by Bonnie Fitzgerald
Bonnie Fitzgerald and Heavenly Waters