Laurel True, World-Traveling Mosaic Artist, Tells Her Story

I’ve been an artist my entire life. I was born in 1968 in Ann Arbor, Michigan; my ancestry is French and Irish. I grew up near Chicago. I was a very creative kid and felt very out of place in my suburban hometown. At an early age I began educating myself about other cultures and places. I enrolled in fashion school in New York, visited Europe on a school trip and fundraised for and participated in community service projects in West Africa as a teenager.

I went to University and studied African art and textiles and fashion design. I did not want to go to art school for some reason, preferring to learn through experimentation and apprenticeships.

Paradise, Laurel True 2010,San Francisco, Photo: Russ Osterweil

I found my way to working with mosaics 25 years ago though a magical door in Philadelphia. On the other side of that cosmic door was artist Isaiah Zagar, who became my beloved mentor and taught me “everything he knew”… and I never turned back.

When I worked with Isaiah, we worked on very large projects, on scaffolding, on the street and in public places. One of the many things I learned from Isaiah was a no-fear approach to mosaic making. We covered a lot of space in short periods of time and I took that efficiency and speed into my own practice ... along with the use of lots of mirror.

I continued to create architectural projects over the next two decades, starting my own company, True Mosaics Studio. Through my studio I created architectural mosaics for public, commercial and residential spaces. I also made smaller-scale work I showed in solo and group exhibits. I started teaching mosaic techniques in 1993 in Madison, Wisconsin and have been teaching and lecturing ever since, which I love. I am so proud of my students and mentees and feel so great when I see what they create in the world.

Black Necked Swan, Laurel True 2014, Urban Mosaic Intervention, Chile

Travel has always been in my blood, and any chance I could go, I went. I figured out how to combine travel, teaching and making art, and that makes up a significant part of my life. I have facilitated projects all over the US, in East and West Africa, Europe, Latin America and Haiti. I was based in the Bay Area for 15 years, where I created a large body of public work.

In 2004 I was at a crossroads, trying to decide if I should move to New Orleans, a city I had fallen in love with and where I was already teaching and visiting often, or opening a mosaic school in Oakland. My teaching practice had grown so much that I was outgrowing my studio, and bringing in other instructors to offer workshops on the weekends when I wasn't teaching. 

In January of 2005 I co-founded the Institute of Mosaic Art (IMA) with one of my best friends and fellow renegades and we made the move from my studio to a giant, blighted building down the street, which we tricked out with tons of paint and mosaics with the help of many, many amazing people. It was like a giant community project.

IMA officially opened its doors in June of 2005 with three classrooms, two exhibition spaces, a retail store, library and urban sculpture garden and this became a giant, important part of my life for the next 5 years.  It was a massive amount of work but it provided a much-needed space for the growing mosaic community and was the first-of-its-kind mosaic education and resource center in the US. 

Mosaic art was gaining popularity and IMA was an important hub for many artists and enthusiasts as well as a springboard for community development in the Jingletown neighborhood where we were located.

We had students and visitors coming from all parts of the globe. We opened on less than a shoestring, but we had tons of “creative capital” and we used it. I had my production studio in the building and continued to create commissioned projects with the help of production assistants and apprentices.

My business partner and I passed the baton for IMA in 2010, and it was, and continues to be, in good hands with new ownership. IMA now lives in Berkeley, CA and they still offer an amazing array of workshops, classes, resources and exhibits. I love being a Visiting Instructor there.

 

Tropical Flowers Mural, Laurel True / True Mosaics Studio  2011, Mirebalais Hospital, Haiti

I had been sharing time between Oakland and New Orleans during the IMA years and after the changing of the guard in 2010 I moved my base of operations to New Orleans, where I live and maintain a studio today.

The year 2010 was also the year of the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

A few months after the earthquake I was connected to a non-profit youth arts organization in Jacmel, Haiti through a colleague. In June of 2010 I walked through another important life portal and found myself deeply involved in community development through art in Haiti, which continues today. I traveled with a friend and former student to the seaside town of Jacmel, which is a cultural and artistic hub in Haiti.

We worked with Art Creation Foundation For Children, a wonderful organization offering social services and art education to youth in desperately poor situations. During my first of what was to be many trips, we created a Tree of Life mosaic mural as a memorial to the lives lost in the earthquake.

I worked with youth teaching basic mosaic-making processes and then began to help develop their skills in mosaic mural making and professional development training in the arts. These kids have grown into young adults now and as I work alongside them on certain projects, I am filled with an indescribable sense of love and pride. They are simply amazing. They have grown into talented mosaic artists and the city of Jacmel is now covered with more than 30 of their music murals and benches.

Tree of Life and Jacmel Memorial Mosaic Wall, Laurel True with Art Creation Foundation For Children 2010 Assistance by Erin Rogers, Jacmel, Haiti

On the way home from that very first trip to Haiti, my friend and I were bumped up to first class by a flight attendant who knew about the work we had been doing.

Through a stroke of luck - or fate - we sat next to a man who introduced us to Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder of the public health organization Partners In Health, who was also on our flight. Dr. Farmer invited me to work with PIH in a new hospital they were building in the central valley of Haiti in the town of Mirebalais. Over the next two years I designed and created, with the help of a team of Haitian men I trained and visiting artists from the States, a series of mosaic murals and seating areas for Mirebalais Hospital.

I loved working with Partners In Health, on the construction site and with my amazing team, who I came to love very much.

In 2012 I designed and facilitated the creation of a series of mosaic enhancements and murals that covered the interior of the pediatric ward of the hospital. I worked with school children in Haiti and in the US, basing many of the designs on their drawings, and recruited the help of over 100 of my former students at IMA and colleagues across the country to create elements for the project and assist with the fundraising. I am still involved with PIH and am so proud to have been a part of that project. 

 

Students in front of Jacmel Memorial Mosaic Wall, Laurel True with Art Creation Foundation For Children 2011, Jacmel, Haiti

I have worked with several other organizations in Haiti, teaching, training and creating mosaic murals with communities. Mosaic has proliferated in Haiti and has garnered international attention. I’m really happy about that. The Huffington Post ran a story about the work of my students from Art Creation Foundation For Children in Jacmel. We were on Nickelodeon News and have been lauded by the Haitian Ministry of Tourism. That is art making a difference. It’s amazing.

I am now the director of the Mosaic Program and Creative Director at Art Creation Foundation For Children. I work mainly on our young entrepreneurs program with older youth, but the organization supports 100 kids from the age of 4-24 with meals, school fees, uniforms, health care and art training. We are constantly struggling to raise funds for these ongoing programs.

In conclusion, I feel essentially drawn to do what I do. My life and work are inextricably linked, woven together with threads that come from a very deep place of cosmic connection.

I feel very comfortable traveling, teaching, and working with communities to create art. I feel like I am doing what I was born to do. I love to be witness to the well-being that can arise in the midst of great hardship and adversity through the practice of creative expression and making.

Lotus Bench, Laurel True 2015, New Orleans

The world needs art. It is essential, and it is for everyone. People can feel so disconnected from art and creative expression. Both have become marginalized or seen as exclusive in many cultures … art being reserved for private audiences or creative expression being only for selected individuals.

I feel called to help people un-learn this.

I want to help create accessible public art that people can naturally connect with, something that adds something to their experience, moment or life.

I believe in equity and social justice. I believe that well-being and environmental beautification are social justice issues. Witnessing the positive ripple effect of socially engaged art is life affirming and heartening on so many levels.

Let the beauty we love be what we do

-Rumi

To see more of Laurel's work, please visit her websites at:

www.truemosaics.com

www.acffcjacmelhaiti.com

www.globalmosaicproject.org

or connect with her on the following social media sites:

FB: True Mosaics Studio

https://www.facebook.com/True-Mosaics-Studio-276758323289/

Global Mosaic Project

https://www.facebook.com/The-Global-Mosaic-Project-213918775335820/

Instagram: Laureltrue3

This is Week 44 of 52 Artists in 52 Weeks. Thank you for reading and sharing Laurel’s story today!

Note: If you would like to make a donation to support the incredible work Laurel is doing in Haiti, please visit www.acffcjacmelhaiti.com. 

Jamie Lovern, Artist & Designer, Tells Her Story

My tale begins my senior year of high school in 1989. I had taken some college classes during my senior year, which had given me college credits so I already had enough credits to graduate. However, by law I had to stay on campus until first dismissal, so I had to take one more class. I chose an art class thinking, “This will be an easy class and just might be fun.” My plan after high school was to attend Manatee Community College for my AA degree then move on to Florida State University to major in Criminology -- art was the farthest thing from my mind.

During my high school art class, the teacher started noticing my work and made a recommendation that I should think about a career related to art. I thought she was nuts.

That next fall, I started my classes at MCC. My mom had attended an art show at Ringling College of Art and Design. She was so impressed and thought the show’s work reminded her of the work I did in my one, lone art class. She took me to see the show and I was intrigued. I thought to myself, “Wow! This place is incredible.” I had never thought of a career associated with the arts.

My mom looked into me applying to Ringling. I thought, “This is crazy...I took one art class in high school, I am not an artist. Students spend their entire high school years preparing to get accepted into such a prestigious college such as Ringling.” Long story short, I got accepted to attend the following fall.

I loved Ringling! From figure drawing to photography to graphic design - I had found my calling. After four years of intense college courses, I graduated with my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and was on my way.

Right out of college, I was hired by a design & marketing firm and spent 3 years with them, designing all sorts of marketing materials for clients ranging from Sarasota Memorial Hospital to Teleflex. I even won a Gold Addy Award (American Advertising Award) - A GOLD ADDY is recognition of the highest level of creative excellence and is judged to be superior to all other entries in the category. I won it for my design of a product packaging piece for Seadoo gauges for Teleflex. Little did I know I would be designing packaging for my own company one day. I soon wanted to move on to a larger company and expand my horizons.

My next position came at the Sarasota Herald Tribune - I was hired in their Creative Art Department. I created specs and ad campaigns for many clients in a deadline-driven environment for 9 years. I loved creating, but designing 8 hours-a-day in front of a computer for many years was taking its toll. I started thinking of doing something else, but had no clue what or how.

I love to cook and every evening I burned candles while cooking dinner to relax from the day. My husband now, but boyfriend at the time, started noticing this black soot around our apartment from burning regular paraffin candles. He found an article online about how toxic candles are. I was so disappointed...I loved candles! Then he found an article about how people were making candles from this new wax - “soy”. This was back in 2003, when most people had no idea what soy was. I ordered a kit and starting making candles out of old vintage glass I found at Goodwill and giving them to friends as gifts. As soon as they burned them, they saw how clean the candles burned, how much longer than regular paraffin candles they lasted and with no toxic carcinogens. After that, I could not keep up with the demand!

I thought, “Maybe I’ll start a side business and I can do all the marketing and product design.” So I did. And Lolablue was born. “So where did you get the name Lolablue?” is something I get asked a lot. Lola was a nickname given to me by my best bud, Pedro, for my love of Barry Manilow. Blue was chosen for two reasons: #1 is because our planet is called “The Blue Planet” and everything we do within our company is in honor of and respect for Mother Earth, and #2 is because the sky’s the limit!

I have always been a fan of natural products and the benefits of living a clean lifestyle, so how Lolablue is perfect a fit. I continued with my career and worked Lolablue on the side. Being the adventurer that I am, my boyfriend and I took to trip to Vegas and came back married! Yes, on the spur of the moment we jumped on a scooter and got married at a Vegas drive-up window. Best time ever!! I highly recommend it.

We decided to move south to build a house and landed in North Port. We made sure to install a 220V outlet in our garage so I could make candles. Guess what?! I got pregnant! After the birth of our son, I decided to resign from my career to be home with him and slowly build Lolablue.

I spent 4 years working out of our garage while changing diapers, filling wholesale orders, and expanding our product line, all while working farmers markets on the weekends. I did most of my advertising and marketing for our products on social media back then (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter were not around - only MySpace), but I landed a featured article about our products from an LA-based magazine and a product spot in a 2009 Pre-Oscar party Swag bags in Beverly Hills.

We moved to manufacturing space in 2011 and never looked back. I have expanded our product line into many different eco-lux products since starting with candles. I formulate every product myself after loads of research and experimental batches, and I believe in divine intervention.

We have natural body bug spray, natural soaps, sugar scrubs, body-hydrating cremes and our newest creation, natural deodorant for sensitive skin. All of our products are hand-crafted in small batches to ensure the highest quality. They are also paraben-free, phthalate-free, gluten-free, and sulfate-free.

My husband came on board with the company about 3 years ago. Currently, we have nearly 50 wholesale accounts and growing throughout the US and have plans for landing a large retailer and expanding internationally this coming year.

We have won 3 years in a row “Best of the Best” Green Business from the North Port Sun newspaper. In 2013, our products were featured in MTV Movie Awards Swag bags and we were also a Martha Stewart American Made Product nominee.

Everyday I am grateful for the opportunities that have come our way and happy to see the faces of our customers who have found healing and peace from using our products and eliminating toxins from their environment.

Along my journey to entrepreneurship I have found one quote that is so true and still blows my mind….”Follow your bliss, doors will open for you that you ever even knew existed.”

This is Week 43 of 52 Artists in 52 Weeks. Thank you for reading and sharing Jamie’s story today! Lolablue’s products can be ordered online and are in many boutiques. To learn more about Lolablue, please visit the website, and Jamie’s Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest pages.

Dan Waltz, Author, Artist & Illustrator, Tells His Story

I considered myself a retired artist, or at least a semi-retired one. I’ve had a pretty good career in the arts, lasting over thirty years. I say semi-retired, because due to time, I don’t paint very often anymore, but rest assured, when I really do retire, I will pick up the brush once again. 

I’ve sold a lot of paintings and prints over the years, and illustrated a few books. I even did a few book covers for others, as well as my own. When I’m painting, I specialize in realistic wildlife. I’ve worked in all mediums, oils, acrylic, pen, pencil, but prefer watercolor for the detail I can get from them.

About eight or so years ago, I laid down my paintbrush and picked up a pen and started writing again. I wrote as a teen back in the 70’s, then started drawing and painting, and well, 30+ years later I end up here. “Writing again.”

I really enjoy it. It’s like painting with words. It’s just another form of communication and another form of art; I guess I’m not really retired after all.

I write whatever kind of story that comes to mind. I really don’t want to be stuck in one genre.  I write horror, fantasy, drama, it doesn’t really matter. I would like to say I have something for everyone. If you like zombie fiction, I’ve got it, but I also have a bullying story that everyone should read. I have written a book on an adventurous garden gnome, and even one on a haunted corn maze, which I’m in the process of rewriting. I prefer to write novels over short stories, but I have started a collection of shorts as well.

My latest novel came out almost a year ago. I wrote the first draft in the 2013 NANOWRIMO and published it last year after about a year of polishing. It’s titled, ASH, Like a Tattoo. The book was never intended to be a bullying story, but that’s what it turned out to be, and I love it. I want to do more like it, which is why I recently purchased http://www.bullycidal.com in hopes to add to the story or create new ones along the way, and to help promote bully awareness. You may have already guessed that I was bullied as a child.

                      

Well, that’s in the works, but so are a lot of things. I tend to work on many stories all at once. In fact, I believe I have about 11 of them going as I write this blog. They’re all different genres and I work on them as the story comes to me.  I like to let them write themselves and I never force the issue. Sure, I have an idea in mind from the start, and most of the time I have an ending as well, but by the time I get there, the ending has usually changed. That’s just my style.  I’m just as much surprised at the end of the book, writing it, as you would be reading it. That’s what makes it fun.

My books are available on my website and on Amazon. To learn more about my art, my books and more about me, please visit my website at www.danwaltz.com and of course, I’m on all the social networks.

This is Week 42 of 52 Artists in 52 Weeks. Thank you for reading and sharing Dan’s story today.