The New Project

I'm embarking on a series of new works, in collaboration with my friend Rebecca Buchanan. We are going to do a "call and response" — I'm interpreting works Rebecca paints or prints, and she'll interpret works I create in mosaic. We are also talking about doing one literally collaborative work where we both contribute to the same piece! For my warm-up, I set out to interpret a monoprint Rebecca made that Bob and I bought, because we loved it immediately at first view. The monoprint is untitled, but I decided to name my piece "You and Me". I felt the two houses had distinct personalities, and I am using them as a metaphor for Bob and me. This series will be exploring what home means to both Rebecca and I. Rebecca has been exploring this concept for a couple of years now, and I am intrigued with what she's been doing. Our joint work will culminate in a two-month exhibition at Walters Cultural Art Center in Hillsboro, opening December 2. I'm both scared and exited to be embarking on this project. It is going to be a challenging and exciting summer! Here's the work-in-progress for "You and Me":

Garden of Surging Waves Dedication

Saturday, May 17, 2014, at 10:30 am, a crowd gathered at the corner of 11th and Duane Streets in downtown Astoria to officially open the first phase of the Astoria Heritage Square. Celebrating the contribution of the Chinese pioneers to this area, the Garden of Surging Waves is a tribute to the men and women who helped build Astoria. It will be a beautiful, meditative place for citizens to enjoy for a long time. The sturgeon mosaic in the Pavilion of Transition is a shiny, bright spot in the garden, and I am extremely proud to have been able to bring it to life, with the help of my nine fabulous assistants!

SAMA Conference Recap

The 14th annual Society of American Mosaic Artists's conference was held in Houston, Texas, April 30-May 4. It was a great five days of networking, education and creative inspiration. This year I was able to simply be a participant, in contrast to last year when I was the co-lead artist on the Mosaic Marathon in Tacoma. It is a good experience to do that job once, but I was happy to be able to take a couple of workshops this year and just drop in for a two-hour session of the marathon, not be responsible for completing it! This year, Dianne Sonnenberg of Austin was more than up to the task. She and her Austin Mosaic Guild group created a very ambitious tryptich, that was not only big, it was sculptural and very involved. We were concerned they would not finish in time, but indeed they did! On Sunday I went on the bus that took a group of us to the installation site at Smither Park and watched the installation on the community-built, ongoing project that is the memory wall. Here is a photo recap of some of my experiences at the conference. Warning: 20 photos to follow. I won't be insulted if you don't look at them all! :-)

Annual SAMA Conference Time

For the 11th year in a row, I'm heading to the American Mosaic Summit, aka the SAMA conference! This year it's in Houston, Texas, another U.S. city I have not been to before. Thanks to the Society of American Mosaic Artists and the world of contemporary mosaics, I've now been to Chicago, Miami, Washington D.C., Austin, TX and Lexington, KY, and Tacoma, WA, all because of SAMA conferences. They've also been held in San Francisco, San Diego and Mesa, AZ, which I had been to before there was SAMA. Each year, I eagerly await to hear where the next year's conference will be held. Maybe I'll be going to another new city next year!

I've also had the privilege to have work chosen for the juried exhibition eight times out of 11. Back in 2007, it was super exciting to get the call learning my piece, Bosphorus Dockside, was chosen for a juror's choice award! As the conference was in Mesa that year, I was able to have my whole family come out to see my work in the show. Coinciding with baseball spring training in Arizona didn't hurt either, since we're all fans! It was a great reunion and family vacation.

This year, my Sturgeon mosaic, from the Garden of Surging Waves in Astoria, Oregon, was selected to be in the exhibition. It will once again be exciting to go to the gallery opening and celebrate with all my mosaic friends and colleagues.

During the conference, I will be taking workshops from Guilio Menossi and Emma Biggs, two masters of contemporary mosaic art. Very excited to learn new things and be inspired by these two.

Another fun event during the conference is the Salon and auction. Any conference participant is able to submit a work (unjuried) for show and silent auction. The piece I made for this year's salon is Still Life (after Morandi) Fun new style and subject matter for me.

Off I go to some sun and warmth in Houston! Warm weather, and more importantly, warm friendship and camaraderie from one fantastic group of artists!

Presentation on 2013 Italy Trip

On May 14, I'll be giving a presentation on the Mosaic Masterpiece Tour to Italy I experienced last October.

Quick link to register.

Shute Park Library Pavers are Installed!

Once again I lucked out with the weather for an install! Though the temps were pretty low in the mornings, it was dry, and the sun came out each day for glorious afternoons. Thanks to Laticrete's "One-Step" method, using the latex additive with the Permacolor grout proved to have two values. In addition to having our mortar be the exact same color as the grout we'd be using, the latex allowed us to install at temps as low as 35 degrees F. And did we come close! Tuesday morning dawned close to freezing. Peter Bral, my excellent tile installer, joined me at the library at 10 am to get started. Mixing, spreading and placing the mosaics was the quicker half of the install. We were done by about 12:30 pm.

Final Work on Shute Park Library Pavers

Installation is next week! We are down to finishing up the four final pavers. This week I had help from my "J" team— Jan, Jo and Janie. Sue had already bolted to sunny Arizona, and Sandy is unfortunately down with a bronchial infection. But thanks to her stash of some light blue Cinca tile, we are able to finish the backgrounds of the frog totem pavers! I always aim to order more than enough material for projects, but it's a very difficult task. Apparently when doing the original spec, I thought I might use more of the glazed blue tile in those backgrounds than we ended up doing. But the Cinca coordinates well with the Briare Mazurka unglazed porcelain. Local volunteer photographer extraordinare Rick Paulson came by the studio on Wednesday to photograph us working. Here are the shots:

Shute Park Mosaic Paver Project

On February 1 we held the first public workshop day to begin fabrication of 15 pavers for the entrance plaza of the newly renovated Shute Park branch library in Hillsboro. Many people participated and everyone had a lot of fun doing mosaic! The second Saturday workshops were cancelled because of snow! The record snowstorm closed just about everything the weekend of February 8th, including the library. I rescheduled two other opportunities this week, on Wednesday and Friday. Our final day is Saturday, and there is a full slate of volunteers signed up to help out.

This project was funded by a grant from Regional Arts and Culture Council, The Friends of the Hillsboro Library and the City of Hillsboro.

Here are a few photos of the project in progress:

Sturgeon is accepted into MAI

I got word today the the Astoria Sturgeon Mosaic was accepted into the Mosaic Art International 2014 juried exhibition! The show and annual SAMA conference will be in Houston this May. I am attending, and will be excited to see this work represented in the show. Here is a paragraph from the acceptance letter: Dear LYNN ADAMO, We are very pleased to inform you that your work, Sturgeon Mosaic , has been selected to be included in the Mosaic Arts International 2014 exhibition at The Williams Tower Gallery, Houston, TX.  We received over 300 entries from artists in 12 countries. The jurors carefully considered every piece and discussed the submissions at length. The jury selected 40 artists for inclusion in the MAI exhibition to be held from April 24 – May 30, 2014.

Artist Reception for Dynamic Continuum

Dynamic Continuum is complete

One week ago today, I wrapped up the piece in bubble wrap and Bob and I carefully moved the work from the studio to our truck. We placed it on thick foam pads and drove it to Tualatin. For the first 15 minutes of the trip, I was a basket case, worried that something would happen to it while driving. After watching it through the cab window, I was finally satisfied it was not going to move in the truck bed, and we arrived at the library safely. We were greeted by Mark Brody, my friend and colleague who I hired to lead the installation. My client Becky Savino, of the City of Tualatin, and Brett, the facilities manager, were also on hand. My friend and photographer, Loren Nelson arrived shortly after we did to document the process.

Almost done

One more day left to finish up this project, and then pack it up for transport to the library  on Friday. Here are a few shots of some of the elements on the sides.

Tualatin Centennial Project: Two weeks to go!

I've made considerable progress on this project, which is essential, as installation is scheduled for December 19! This project is a unique challenge, in that many areas of the design have to evolve even as I'm doing the final creation of the work. It's exciting even if a little scary at times! Unlike other types of work I do, the Work-in-Progress photos don't often look good enough to show to the public. Unfinished and out of context, they don't work to give a good impression of what I'm aiming for. I was pleased that the shots I took yesterday are interesting and I like them well enough to post a few.

Tualatin Centennial Library Project: update

Here are some images from this project in progress. It's difficult for me to photograph this as it's being worked on, flat on the table, and without good photographic equipment and lighting conditions.  The glare is problematic, so one must look past that when viewing these work-in-progress photos.

Tualatin Library Centennial Project

I was awarded a commission to create a work of art to commemorate 100 years of Tualatin being incorporated as a city this past June. The ideas percolated all summer and into fall while I was working on the Astoria sturgeon mosaic, and while I was in Italy. Upon my return I had to jump in and move forward on it, as it is due to be complete and on the wall in the library on December 13! I'm calling this work "Dynamic Continuum" and it is inspired by many elements from the history of the area that became Tualatin. I discovered Tualatin has a rich history going back to the Atfalati native peoples, through the settlers who came over the Oregon Trail and established farms, homesteads, and industry. Sawmills, brick factories and quarries were early businesses that took advantage of the local natural resources. Ferries and steamboats went into use to transport goods and people, and on it goes through the years to the vibrant community it is today.

My task in the coming month is to take many elements inspired by this history and create a mixed media, bas-relief wall sculpture in honor of this history.

Here's the first installment of the blog that will follow the progress of this project.

Sturgeon Mosaic Installation

I packed up the Subaru on Monday, October 21 and we drove over to Astoria to prepare for the big day.

Tuesday morning dawned clear and sunny. We couldn't have imagined  more perfect weather for the installation. Gorgeous, dry day in Astoria in late October? Wow!

My installer for the project was Brad Laidlaw, of Campbell's Custom Tile. When I arrived, he was prepping the surface for installation. He needed to float some thinset to get the level up to the perfect setting height.

The stainless steel band was not 100% perfect, so I had to pull out a few tesserae and cut some new pieces to better fit the space. On one other edge, Brad used a diamond blade cutter to trim some excess, so it would all fit. Then, we were ready to set!

Next week they will install the big stone pavers that will complete the paving around the mosaic.

I was hoping to go back on Thursday morning to get some shots of the mosaic with one night cure on the grout. But when we arrived, the mosaic was covered with the tarp, and they were using big trucks to shoot in topsoil in areas near the mosaic pavilion. There was also a huge crane truck that was being used to move pre-cast concrete blocks into place. So, we'll have to wait till after Thanksgiving to visit the garden when it's complete!

Week 10: Fabrication Complete!

We did it! On Sunday, September 15, Karen and I put the finishing touches on fabrication. I am amazed that I hit the deadline that I'd originally set out for this project. I'm not completely done though. This week I'll clean the surface, mark and label the template and each section before stacking it up to store before taking it to Astoria. Installation is now going to wait until after I return from my trip to Italy, as the concrete pad for the mosaic has not been poured yet.Here are pics from the last week, including some professional ones by Rick Paulson, who is doing a project for the Hillsboro Arts and Culture Council, photographing Hillsboro artists in their studios.

Catching up on weeks 8 and 9

I'm a bit behind on the blog posts, but I allowed myself to slide because Karen Rycheck wrote two terrific blog posts of her own reporting on the progress made while she was working with me! Links to those here:mosaic-sturgeon-will-be-brightening-up-astoria/ mosaic-sturgeon-will-be-brightening-up-astoria-part-2/ On Thursday of week 8, we had a visit from Suenn Ho, the urban designer and designer of the Garden of Surging Waves. She was very pleased with how I've interpreted the concept of the sturgeon mosaic. Needless to say, I'm happy that she is positive about the work! One tweak we all agreed would be good was a slight revision to the sturgeons' eyes. They had been rendered very simply— with no pupils to speak of. We played around with some dark green tesserae and agreed that some "eye surgery" was in order. That afternoon Karen did the "removal surgery", and I followed with the "pupil transplant." The surgery was a success!

Weeks 6 and 7

Time is flying! The last post was at the end of week 5 when Karen Rycheck was here to help. She took some great pictures of the progress up t0 that point, which I'll start this post with.This week I had help from Richard Davis and Jennifer Kuhns. Before getting to work on Monday, we had a terrific meal that Richard had brought to us. Below is proof we had fun, got work done, and ate well.

End of Week 5

A very productive week! Karen Rycheck came up from Talent, Oregon and put in 3 full days of work with us. By Thursday we'd completed sturgeon #2, the smallest one, and got a good start on the third one. We decided our fish needed names, so we've christened the first and largest one Stanley the sturgeon, our baby is named Gil, and the third is Wanda.Here are a few shots from the week.