Me and Sadie with my tiled sunflower planters, 1988
Recently I came across some photos of the first 10 years or so of my art career and over the coming months I’d like to make a series of posts about this period. The few photographs I have will dictate which stories I tell and which I omit, I hope you enjoy seeing this series as much as I enjoy putting it together!
My mosaic career began inadvertently in 1988. At that time and for several years to come I really didn’t have much of an interest in mosaic, after all I already had an all-consuming love affair going on with ceramics! Mosaic seemed kind of interesting in a remote way but not something I envisioned for myself.
Front of Bev's Tile House in Albuquerque, NM. I love those GARDEN LADIES she made and added in the early 1990s in the front of the photo.
What happened though was that during my junior year of college we had a visiting artist Bev Magennis in the Ceramics Department at Scripps College during the fall semester. Bev -although she didn’t know it then - was in the process of establishing herself as a world-class mosaic artist and had spent all of her free time over the last few years tiling the exterior of her house in Albuquerque, NM. This project was recognized later by the Smithsonian as one of the nation’s 10 undiscovered treasures.
Bev and I really hit it off from the beginning. Working at neighboring tables over the course of the many hours, weeks and months spent in the studio gave us the opportunity to talk more casually and frequently than is usually possible for teachers and students. Our age difference of 20 years was significant and I’m sure much more so for her but she was very generous and let me feel like a peer, valued and I really never thought much about my inexperience and youth in her presence.
Bev and me on the scaffolding she used to mosaic the back of her house that summer. We are wearing the funny beaded "ties" we got at the market in Santa Fe.During her time in Claremont she made some ceramic vessels but primarily focused on making glass mosaic birdbaths for her tile house. I watched her piecing together all of these Smalti (small glass mosaic pieces that are usually opaque) and marveled at her patience. I got the idea that I would like to spend some time working with her in the summer of 1988 although it wasn’t because I had a particular interest in mosaic, but rather because I wanted to spend more time learning from her in general. She became my mentor and sort of a second mother and to this day has remained a very important figure in my life with whom I communicate regularly. Scripps College had a grant program for summer study and I got one of those small stipends to work with Bev for 4 weeks which led to such a fun and memorable summer!
Her “Tile House” project began when she decided to put a little ceramic tile border around the front door of her stucco house. It is New Mexico after all and this aesthetic is fitting. Then a neighbor said, “hey, do you need some more tile, I’ve got some in my basement left over from my remodel?” And pretty soon people from all over the area just kept bringing her tile and her tile border grew into a full pledged art project.
By the summer of 1988 when I came, she had completed the front, the sides and was working on the back of her house. In her home studio she had made some ceramic sunflowers with steel stems set in concrete bases. Tiling these “planters” would be my task for the month of August. (see header photo)
the side of Bev's tile house. This is my favorite part of her incredible mosaic project.
Her first words in teaching me about doing broken tile mosaic were along the lines of - mosaic isn’t for everyone, people seem to either take to it or they don’t. Just see if you like it.
With a few pointers under my belt, a hammer in my hand, I started breaking up tile and formulating some ideas for the sunflower planter mosaics. I did one planter each day. We always began the day very early because we would have to stop mid-afternoon for the regular thunderstorms followed by rainbows.
I liked it! Broken tile mosaic is very different from what I do now, but also shares some basic principles that I still keep in mind today when designing a mosaic. The first two planters came out well and the third (see below) which I was hoping to make into a sort of globe showing North and South America, wasn’t as successful. The well-timed lesson taught me about about the necessity of clearly defined forms and keeping the composition very simple when working with broken tile. I applied this in my approach to the rest of the planters.
At a time when I was much in need of confidence, expanding my medium and having some success with it was important. Although I didn’t make any mosaics again for 4 years or so, a new pathway in my life had opened up which made it possible for me to pursue making my own mosaics years later when I was ready.
What I remember most about that summer was the hot August Albuquerque sun, the smell of the red dirt during the rainstorms, and hours spent at Bev’s dining room table talking and talking and talking. I’m fairly sure she did more listening and I did more of the talking, but she was always gracious so I didn’t notice. I remember my sleeping loft in the tile house, gazing out the tiny window where I got those sweet moments to myself at the start and end of each day, popcorn lunches so we could hurry back outside to do more tiling and the daily walks I took with Bev’s dog Sadie along the irrigation ditches. And of course the New Mexico landscapes. I had never seen anything quite like it and was so moved by the mesas, the palette of the land and watching multiple simultaneous lightening storms over the wide open horizons as we drove out to Acoma or Santa Fe.
A birthday cake Bev and I made for her friend Jim. We had a blast forming the parts from cookie dough!
All in all, I look back and realize how incredibly lucky I was to have met this wonderful woman who opened up my world in so many ways. How incredibly fortunate to have found a mentor who taught me so much about mosaics and ceramics but mostly about how to walk in this world as a artist who celebrates the act of being alive. She was and is a model of an independent spirit living life on her own terms. Artistically - both in ceramics and mosaic - her work continues to inspire joy in me. I’m so grateful to this day for my creative mentor, friend and the mother figure I’ve always needed in my life.
Below is the bedroom wall inside Bev Magennis' Tile House which is all mosaic as well.
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This post is part of the Blockchain Memory Project initiated by @ericvancewalton, his post and the rules for participation:
https://steemit.com/story/@ericvancewalton/steemit-blockchain-memory-project-my-journal-episode-1
I think it would have been a blast to be a fly on the wall watching you two with iced peach tea!!
Got emotional imagining the New Mexico landscape!
:-), yes we probably were nutty to watch! And oh yes, the NM landscape is really something. I'm going there in the next month to visit her and can't wait to see it! xo
My bff liked it there one time she visited..it can be very dramatic am sure. Have fun Fannie☺
A beautiful and creative memory to share, thank you @natureofbeing.
thanks @opheliafu!
Thanks for sharing these vibrant memories, Ruth! What an amazing opportunity that must have been!
Yes, and actually writing this post made me appreciate it at a new level ... with age that can happen!
That house is amazing! Just knowing about the process makes a person appreciate mosaics so much more. It is very tedious but the results are fantastic.
When I was in Turkey, we went to the ruins of Ephesus and the mosaics there were insane. The streets were mosaics!! An art form from the beginning of civilization.
Oh yes Turkish tile is extraordinary, lucky you for seeing Ephesus in person!! Would love to..
You're so right that it's a very old art, just like making vessels in clay (which I also love ;-))
That is about the coolest house I've ever seen. Amazing, and it fits so well with that area of the country. The inside work is so funky and artistic. I love it. Did she have to plywood the whole outside, to make it flat and have everything 'stick'? I'm not all that familiar with the process in the outdoors.
Such and interesting project to go back and view the past. It's really fun to read, particularly after meeting you in person. Always amazes me how everyone has such a unique, multi-faceted, complex journey in life. And EVERY person is so different in the end (or when we meet them). We are all so unique. How boring it would be to be otherwise.
I've just recently come to appreciate this long life journey each of us goes through, and how many of the 'steps', no matter how long, are so important and far reaching. It is all so fascinating when you really ponder the journey and what it entails.
Such good fortune to have been able to meet and sustain a friendship with such a creative, giving person. That is so beyond priceless in today's world of the hustle and bustle. And that you have been able to stay in such close contact as friends, even more so.
I look forward to more of your 'tale' of journeying through the artists life. Have a nice day in the clay.
hello @ddschteinn! thanks for your support and comment, her house was stucco to begin with which is actually a decent surface for tile. Anything that is concrete-based is good. Anything that expands and contracts with moisture and temperature (plywood for example) is particularly NOT good for tile :-). Just imagine how the tile stays still while the wood moves. Pretty soon the thinset and grout will flake and crumble and tile will pop off.
I agree that each step winds up being important in the big picture and it's always hard to know at the time which experiences are the important ones. I guess this is why it's so essential to be as present as we can throughout every moment of our lives from mundane to spectacular!
I enjoyed reading this. It is nice to learn a bit of the backside of people!
glad to hear it, I also enjoy the backstory :-))
It took me a while but I'm still within pay out so upvoted and here's my -probably kinda huge this time- comment...
This post brought tears in my eyes. But not sadness tears, happiness tears! Seeing you and your art THAT cute (referring to both hehe), with your mentor, telling us your story and confirming that you are an amazing, creative, talented person with a good heart ...I couldn't help it!
All this you built it with your interest, efforts, studying, creating and I really admire that - I wish I could be more like you in SO many ways...
Loved the atmosphere of the pictures - and for the first time looking at old pictures I did NOT think 'we're getting old' bla bla, I thought...'Look! Some people are accomplished in their lives!' Congrats and hoping to get one tenth out of what you have, if I'm lucky!
Lots and lots of looooove - and hugs, always hugs! :D
how sweet, thank you @meanmommy33 :-)) xoox
Oh wow, wow, wow!! Bev's house is amazing and the tiled ladies in the front are so cool! I am so glad you found a great mentor and share such a good relationship with her.
thank you @sharoonyasir, I sure am so glad too....it's always made me feel so fortunate!
Oh wow! How could Bev not be anything but a great source of inspiration?!
I think i just stared at that 4th and 5th photo you posted for well over 3 minutes each! My attraction to this kind of art is equal to that of a magnet.
Where does she get her inspiration from? (the patterns look Mexican/Mayan?) Does she choose colors randomly? Does she have an overall vision of what she wants to create or does she just casually add new elements as time goes by? How long did it take her to fully complete her house?
Love love love this story Ruth, and the photos to illustrate. I hope i get to meet you both one day.
Ah yes, of course you would completely love this house! I should have dedicated this post to you :-)).
Bev has a fantastic eye for design and is very precise in some ways while loose in others as you can see. All of the tile she used initially was donated by neighbors, so for the front of the house, she designed according to the colors people brought. And also, the front was a bit random since she started with just a border and then continued bit by bit without a real plan. A turning point from figuring it out as she went along to actually making a design happened when a neighbor brought that sort of burnt-orange color that's used quite a bit on the front. While she didn't love the color, the guy had a lot of it so it motivated her to design a way to use the color integrated with other colors she had on hand and liked better. By the time she got to the side of the house, she had a general sense of the imagery she wanted to use and designed before tiling using a mix of donated tile and bought seconds from a local tile factory. Most of those are closed now unfortunately. The back of the house she also pre-designed and the colors were worked out according to what she had with a few supplemental colors purchased again from the tile factory 2nds warehouse. Actually searching through these 2nds was a really fun experience too! 2000 Square feet of boxes of tile on the floor and we'd just walk through and fall in love with certain boxes.
You'd love the rest of her work too, she's really talented!!
A perfect sense to meet people that will change people's lives.
My photographing curiosity started with a teacher exactly and turned into a passion!
I am happy that I learned important steps in your life :) You have very sweet pictures and a successful story.
thanks for sharing :)
HUGE
Thank you @artizm, have you considered writing a post about your curiosity grew into a passion? Might be a fun one :-)
Thank you for your support, comment and friendship!
I love hearing this story. This connection with another artist is so important and actually, incrasingly, I am beginning to see how my own self imposed isolation has been, though good for my spirit, possibly not allowed me as much outside inspiration for my own work.
It is funny that 'online' has really lead to my own artistic awakening and continued growth. Being an arist before online really was what it is now of course, but it was the internet that brought me to inktober which was an online challenge to draw everyday in October and that spilled over to my now normal daily activity.
And now with Steemit, I feel I am connecting with artists (though just digitally now) in such a way that I feel my work is really starting to sing and that characters and works that had been dormant or just a kernal of an idea have been given light and water like a seed and began sprouting into my new pieces.
I hope one day, if I am lucky, that when you do find yourself on the East coast we can connect IRL, as they say. I am finding more the desire to be in the company in real life with other artist. And my trip planned for the UK in Autumn I shall be ever more diligent to connect with my art friends there and will be open to finding many more!
I am excited to see these stories of your past. And I feel inspired as well with your studio posts that I am considering making a series of posts about trying to rethink my own on hold artists website and to reconsider what a website for an artist could mean today, like could it be more of an online studio to show your works but also a place to have people 'pop in'? I don't know?
I can't wait to hear more of your past. And that house is amazing, I can't imagine what joy it must have been to be residing and working in a living piece of artwork!
I really love hearing that meeting other artists and seeing their work has ignited your inspiration so much, this is really something to celebrate! I always see Steemit as a sort of more engaging online connection since people tend to go a little deeper both in posts and in conversation/comments, so while it doesn't substitute for IRL relationships, it does nourish more than the usual social media engagement. I too am inspired by so many artists here. By the way I learned of 2 talents on your feed the other day, (resteems) thank you!
And yes we will meet either before or after your UK trip which really sounds wonderful. I am craving travel and to visit other creatives' studios and see how they piece life together among other things.
Thank you for your rich commentary and conversation, I always get a big smile when I come to your comments :-)
I like these touching moments of the beginning of your creative journey. Old photos are something special. One has only to find them in the closet and an endless stream of memories falls on us. A great idea to share these moments. I would love to follow your stories.
Thank you @anna-mi! more to come ...
Consider adding some of yours to the Memory project too!
Beautiful work. Your mentor had a great eye (and obviously patience, tenacity and follow through). I think a mentor who listens is as important as one who metes out sage advice. The listening part has a value that can't be over stated. Thank you for sharing.
You are so right both about Bev's eye, patience, tenacity and follow-through, and about listening! I'm always trying to get myself to shut up and listen :-))
Thanks for your comment and support!
Oh WOW this is such a great trip down memory lane! And an amazing visual feast I'm almost crying that's how much I love to even KNOW a house like that exists in the world <3
You have been incredibly luck indeed to have found a fellow artist, a woman, a mentor, one that could help you grow and probably just by being 'taken in' by her grew your confidence.
Thanks for sharing, looking forward to part 2.
Also looking forward to more pictures where I can find people reflected in windows, I always check for those, so much fun :D
in retrospect I see how much moxie Bev had to have started and then continued this project! Wouldn't it be a great project to mosaic a windmill in The Netherlands? it could be incredible close and from afar.
And you are so right, it was/am incredibly fortunate to have such a person in my life and I treasure her. I'll be seeing her in a few weeks which will be great.
Pictures of people reflected in windows....what a great idea! I'll have to pop over to your blog and see what you've been up to...very behind on curation these last 3 days but I'll catch up I promise :-).
Thanks as always for your wonderful comments, support and friendship!
Yes, to start AND finish a project like this is both mindblowing <3
I'd LOVE a windmill covered in mosaic art! OMG! How can we make this happen? I'd have a feast just creating the perfect pictures of it :-)
Yes, try to look for reflections in shots... In shot #4 in your post I see a woman in a gorgeous blue dress, is that you? It's so fascinating to me to see the photographer in the picture. Probably because I always try to find the spot from where I'm sure I'll not appear in the picture ;-)
There is no better feeling then meeting ur old frnz ... We make new friends everywhere we go but some moments are precious... U lucky u got 1
You are right, old friends ARE special and I have a few so I'm very fortunate. Thanks for stopping by my blog!
That’s such a great memory story! The tile house is magnificent, I feel inspired to do something “big” and explore the medium with no holds bared. I always wanted to move to Taos NM, been there and Santa Fe a few times in the past. Every time an got a serious girlfriend we’d go to New Mexico. It’s a great place to become inspired.
I think Sadie was a mentor to Bev lol ;-)
It really was an incredible project that house....I thought it was cool at the time but now that I've lived more I am even more amazed by it and by her!
Sounds like you've been traveling at a breakneck pace and some stationary time with more routine will be refreshing I can imagine. I'll look forward to more connecting!
good for you for taking some time in the "cave" so you're itching to go out for adventure again. Your family visits sound great and a nice balance to the chance meetings while traveling! I'll message you...