One great thing about mosaic, you meet some nice and very creative people. I was contacted early this month by Jenni Mc Guire, who started creating mosaics in 1998.
Jenni and I work in different ways. When I spend lots of time designing and creating a model before I cut any tessera (see my last post "Digital drawing of a Mosaic Portrait") Jenni lets the mosaic create itself from the beginning. This is a little bit like a musician sometimes lets the music flow through them. Of course, this only can happen if you have a serious mastery of your instrument.
Jenni has developed a very interesting mosaic technique that allows just that, she called it "Watercolor Translation". Her friend Dodie Johnston, a writer and mosaic artist, interviewed Jenni last month about it, to help promote this technique, and Jenni allowed me to be the first to publish it !
I will now let you enjoy the
Dodie Johnston’s
interview
with Jenni McGuire
Dodie: I’m curious
about this new mosaic technique you developed that you call
Watercolor Translation. What can you tell me about it?
Jenni: Watercolor
Translation is a blending of multiple art genres – watercolor
painting, mosaic, and music. That’s kind of an unlikely hybrid, but
one that’s very rich. It’s an abstract technique that focuses on
the process, not the outcome, which can be freeing. So often in art,
people are focused on the finished product, what something will look
like or what kind of statement will be made. Watercolor Translation
takes the emphasis off of outcome, and allows the artist to access
their own inner landscape. Hopefully , they will enjoy the journey
and end up with a beautiful piece in the end, but without the
preoccupation about production.
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| Lacuna, Ceramic and glass |
Dodie: How did you come
up with this?
Jenni: People often ask
me where I get my ideas for my mosaic pieces . Which is kind of an
odd question -- where does anybody get their creative ideas?… Maybe
they ask because they find my work odd. (laughs) When I thought more
about that, I realized there are some influences on my work that
aren’t obvious. One of the most powerful is music. I listen to
music most of the time while I’m working in my mosaic studio. Not
just a boom box radio on in the background, but full, good quality
sound, thanks to my husband, Mark, who designed and built these great
speakers, EQed the room, and made the sound in the studio an integral
part of what happens there. I realized that music influences the very
fabric of my art work.
As you know, I play the
fiddle and in the contemporary music world there is a tremendous
amount of blending and borrowing from various traditions, which
creates these amazing hybrids of composition. So bringing the
cross-pollinating I’ve experienced in music to my mosaic work was a
natural evolution.
I love playing with
contrasts—liquid/solid – hard tiles depicting a melting popsicle,
straight edges arranged as flowing water, solid made to look squishy,
that sort of thing.
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| Hot Day - by Jenni Mc Guire |
So I played around with a painting technique I
learned at Findhorn in Scotland many years ago, primal painting,
which involves abstract painting to music. Then set about
“translating” that to my familiar world of mosaic. It was
fascinating to take the flowing, fluid medium of watercolor, and see
what hard, straight-edged tiles could do with it. The results have
been fascinating-- quite beautiful, and I’ve even used the method
with 3D surfaces.
Dodie: Do you teach this
technique in your classes?
Jenni: I’ve taught
mostly mosaic sculpture classes, but I’ve been teaching more and
more Watercolor Translation workshops too. The facility must have
the right audio equipment because full, rich sound is an integral
part of the experience. Living with a sound engineer ruined me for
being able to hear music on crummy systems. It makes a huge
difference! Good sound defines one’s experience much more than most
people realize. Noticing this is both a blessing and a curse.
The music in the WT
process is deliberately instrumental and non-cognitive. You’re not
thinking about the meaning of lyrics, nor associating with anything
in particular, you’re just feeling the flow of it. It also touches
on different temperaments so different areas of your creative sources
are stimulated. It’s very powerful!
Dodie: Can beginners do
your workshop, or is it more for experienced artists?
Jenni: Both! I’ve had
rank beginners and experienced artists all in the same class. Mosaic
in general seems somehow less intimidating than other art mediums. I
often have people in classes who’ve experienced what I call “art
trauma”. You know, they were at one time told they are not
artistic, or internalized that their sister was the artist in the
family, or felt if they didn’t paint like Rembrandt right out the
gate, they were hopeless. WT sidesteps all that, letting people
explore color, then form, in a non-intimidating way. It lets you
question your own internal rules, because you’ve removed the focus
on all the “shoulds”. For example, when you get to the
tiling/translating part, if you come across a bit that you painted
yellow, and you don’t feel like putting yellow tiles there, put
something else! You get to decide what works best for you. I’m
certainly not going to tell you not to put blue there instead, but
you get to ponder it. People begin to notice where they restrict
themselves, where they can let go more.
Dodie: Do you use any
particular materials?
Jenni: I use a mix of
ceramic and glass – all kinds of different tesserae - tile, dishes,
vitreous, stained glass, smalti. I like to integrate a lot of texture
with color. For classes, I provide a great variety of materials, but
I also have students bring supplies to share, like a big potluck.
That creates a sense of abundance and sharing, and gives everyone
that much more to choose from.
Dodie: What kind of
feedback have you gotten from students?
Jenni: Really positive
feedback, which is great. I love being able to share a process that
has meant a lot to me, and love seeing what other people do with it.
I’ve had people tell me the experience was quite transformative for
them. Some have integrated the method into how they do mosaics in
general. Others have found it freeing and everyone finds it just
really fun. Most people are pretty satisfied with the outcome and the
piece they created. The final “products”, though not a focus of
the workshop, are compelling.
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| Regine's Roadkill
Redemption 2013 |
Dodie: I want to try it!!
When can we sign up for a class or a workshop?
Jenni: The next WT
workshops I’m teaching are at the SAMA conference in Philadelphia
on March 11th and 12th. They’re just one day – enough time to get
a taste of the process. A full weekend is preferable, but you can get
a lot out of just a day. After that, I’m still working on summer
and fall scheduling.
If people are interested, they can email me, (jen@jennimcguiremosaics.com) and I’ll put them on my mailing list
to let them know the next dates and places I’m teaching Watercolor
Translation.
 |
| Hot Coils by Jenni McGuire |
I
am a French Mosaic Artist. I live and work with 2 Border Collie Puppies, 2 useless cats and
many chickens in Alabama and sometimes I operate a second studio in France. You can see
more of my mosaics on my mosaicblues page.
If you would like to
commission a mosaic, or simply discuss mosaics in general please call me at (334) 798 1639 or drop me an email at frederic.lecut@gmail.com.
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