Deborah Block

Vase for Kelly and Sam Mexican smalti, vintage gold smalti, millefiori, 2008

Under the Microscope Cinca unglazed porcelain, copper smalti nails, glass, travertine, 2008

Shalien (She Alien), Stained glass, mirror glass, glass beads, old costume jewelry, top of an old bottle, glass blobs, 2009

Um Gato, um Cao, e uma Flor (The Cat, the Dog, and the Flower), Stained glass, vitreous glass, glass beads, mirror glass, millefiori, 2009

After Kuba Cloth Mexican smalti, millefiori, 2010

Storage Bench Vitreous glass, Cinca unglazed porcelain, 2010

August 2010 Featured Student Artist: Deborah Block

Journey

I never could draw, so I never thought of myself as an artist. My dad was an art director and I used to think his office was a wonderland — every kind and color of paint, colored pencil, marker, crayons, chalk, and colored paper you could think of. Stacks of magazines and picture books, drawings and photos covered the walls. It didn't matter what else was going on in my life — it all fell away when I was there. My father could pick up a pencil (or a brush) and draw a perfect circle, a straight line, or a face, without even seeming to think about it. I could never draw anything that looked like anything. Time passed. I grew up, started working, got married, and raised two boys. Several years ago, I went to Barcelona and saw the work of Gaudi and Jujol. I was totally blown away.

Classes

My son and his wife gave me a book on mosaics as a birthday gift and something clicked, or maybe the time was right. I also saw an article in the paper about Laurel True and IMA. Could I make a mosaic? I wouldn't have to draw. Maybe I could. Could I take a class? I could. I took the plunge. One class — Introduction to Glass Mosaics — and I was hooked. I wanted to come back every week. Other classes at IMA include:

Ancient Meets Modern
Architectural Applications
Exterior & Garden Applications
Indirect Techniques for Mosaics
Intermediate Glass Mosaics
Introduction to Smalti
Lightweight Concrete Sculpture — twice
Pebble Mosaics
Visiting Artist Series:
Mosaics from the Mind's Eye
Emma Biggs: Color & Design Intensive
Laurel Skye: Garden of 1000 Flowers
Pippa Murray: Indirect Methods in Mosaics
Sonia King: Three-Day Mosaic Intensive
Sophie Drouin: Rocking with Stone Mosaics

IMA

I took Introduction to Smalti and Ancient Meets Modern with Laurel True. I love, love, love working with smalti, especially Mexican smalti. Sometimes I feel like I could just lay out the smalti — no cutting necessary — and make something beautiful. And the classical setting styles taught in Ancient Meets Modern — sacre bleu! They are challenging, but rewarding, especially in a contemporary context. Laurel is the perfect combination of experienced artist, encouraging teacher, and animated storyteller. Another fabulous teacher is Tracy Broback, I have taken Lightweight Concrete Sculpture twice. Her class is a lot of fun, even though the Styrofoam flies everywhere.

Mosaics

I especially love coming to lab and working with other people. We talk, we nosh, we cut and set tile, we rip tile out, and we consult on grout color. I love the sense of community here. I am so grateful to have found IMA. I also enjoy solitary work. Mosaic-ing puts me in touch with another part of myself, a part that I haven't been in touch with in many years, and it makes me feel really good about who I am. I still fret over my non-drawing skills, but every time I walk in the door of IMA, I am a little girl again, transported to my dad's office, immersed in a world of color and design.

Growth

I am still working on the classical setting styles I learned in Laurel's Ancient Meets Modern class and want to overcome my fear of opus palladianum. I'm finding there's a lot I can do with vitreous glass. I like to place similar colors next to each other so they seem to shimmer. I also like to use colors that are opposite each other on the color spectrum and see how they affect each other.

Direction

I want to be good enough working in different media and different styles that I can choose what I like and not be intimidated by any of them.

Exhibitions

Faculty, Staff, and Student Anniversary Exhibit, 2010
Journey to Center: Mosaics from the Mind's Eye, 2008
Holiday Exhibit, 2008