Past Featured Student Artists

March 2009 Featured Student Artist:
Yolanda Gutierrez

Journey

Lucy, 2008

When I was very young around 5, I use to go with my mother and father to Fort Cronkite Beach in Marin County most weekends. My mother and I would for hours - pick through the smooth pebble rocks on the beach for her Rock Mosaics made with Elmer's glue - I still have one over my fireplace in perfect condition! Every rock was lovingly categorized by color into little make shift containers - Green - Jades, browns & gold Agates, Red carnelians. This area is now off limits to gathering these semi precious rocks. My mother's gravestone is a mosaic 50's style black cat that she made.

My mother did not believe either of us should be sitting and watching TV. I was always doing some type of creative activity - ceramics, scrap booking/collage, gardening, and faux painting walls before it was chic. I painted my room walls when I was a teenager in the 60's with huge bright Purple and Shocking Pink flowers. I also owned very fun and colorful Beauty Salons for over twenty years. To this day my life has been filled with creative projects.

Mosaic Heart

All types of colored glass make me smile. I tried traditional leaded stain glass art, but it was to exacting for me to enjoy. About 4 years ago I was in Half Moon Bay and stumbled on a place named Half To Have It, a very large building filled with antiques, collectibles and lots of mosaic pots. The ground in the courtyard entrance is covered with stained glass, ceramics and stuff sold by the pound. During my visit a beginning mosaic craft class was in progress, where students would pick up materials off of the ground. While, I was there, the owner told me about IMA - she saw a spark in my eye! The next weekend I drove to Oakland to see a "Mosaic Institute"?!! From the first moment of walking into this wonderland, I was hooked and I knew I had found Nirvana! There was the pink I grew up with! I couldn't believe such a place existed. All of the unique and fun classes could keep me occupied forever! Now when I travel my souvenirs are for mosaics.

Classes taken at IMA

Jungle Birds, 2008

Exterior and Garden Applications
Architectural Applications
Pet Portraiture and Portraiture with Delaine Hackney
Mosaic Valentine Hearts - (twice!) Tracy Broback
Darjit! Concrete Garden Sculpture with Brent Sumner
Lightweight Concrete Sculpture Tracy Broback
Mosaicing Sculptural Forms
Mosaics Around the World
Mosaic Garden Sphere
Edible Mosaics with Jen Rubinstein
Ancient Meets Modern with Laurel True
Renegade Quilting Madeline Behrens Brigham

Mosaics

Most of my designs start with a unique piece of glass or found object. I'm still searching for "My Style". I'm just now starting to not be afraid- that I can't draw a picture. I've never thought of myself as an "artist" just a resourceful, lets try it kind of girl and a collector of all things tactile, unique and colorful. Although recently I have been saying I am a Mosaic Artist! It sounds good and true. I can't imagine ever running out of ideas of what to cover or being able to stop collecting bits and pieces for my future mosaic art. I have created a studio in my garage for my out of control hobby!

From Edible Mosaics class

Growth

I am learning every time I take a class at IMA. I am developing a better eye, more confidence and the desire to improve! I never knew there were so many types of tesserae and fixatives for mosaics!

My goals at the moment are to try and be more design structured - to create, draw or copy an actual design rather than just doing a free form type of style with no plan in mind. This is a challenge for me, as I like a bit of whimsy and mixed media in art! Plus, I need to work on finishing my pieces. Grout is such a mess and sometimes it changes the look of the piece.

Direction

Sphere, 2007

I have no desire to sell my work, all my life I have been in sales and marketing, I don't want mosaics to be an income driven business with time constraints. I am slow and it may take me a few months to finish a piece. That's why I really love taking a class because then I really focus on the end result more while spending uninterrupted hours creating it.

I have never been in any shows. Most of my mosaics go in my garden and home or to friends who express an interest in a piece. At this point, mosaics are strictly for fun and relaxation, but as the pieces multiply, who knows what will happen in the future. I do intend to do my own backsplash in my kitchen next year when I remodel it!

IMA

At IMA I love the classes and the camaraderie of meeting and being around other creative people from all over the world, people who also understand this obsession. Plus I love to see the fabulous creations that evolve.