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Red and Yellow Flower by Irina Charny

Spring has arrived in full force at IMA and we are looking forward to a Spring and Summer filled with great mosaic classes, community projects and inspiration!

Our new class schedule is at the printer now, so watch your mailbox in the coming weeks. You can view our entire schedule through September 2008 online or download the pdf.

Sherri Warner Hunter Concrete Institute

Tile Making with Saundra Warren

Mosaic Mural Making Intensive with Laurel True

Laurel Skye

Upcoming Visiting Artists April 19 - 23 Sherri Warner Hunter — Concrete Institute April 25 - 26 Sherri Warner Hunter — Mosaic for Sculptures April 30 - June 18 Saundra Warren — Multi-Level Tile Making For Mosaics May 17 - 18 Laurel Skye — Garden of 1,000 Flowers (Millefiori Workshop)

April 4 - 6
The Business of Mosaics Doing What You Love and Making a Living At It! with Laurel True

April 12 - 13
Architectural Applications with Laurel True

April 14 - 20
Mural Making Intensive Designing, Setting and Installing Mosaic Murals with Laurel True
For this session's project we will be making a mural for local coffeshop, Kefa Coffee. The Mosaic Mural Making class will create a stylized scene of the tropical, mountainous Kefa coffee-growing region in Ethiopia. The mural install day happens to coincide with our neighborhood Earth Day celebration!

April 26 - 27
Darjit! Series: Sculptural Garden Benches and Chairs with Myles Blackwood

This month we also offer
selections from our core classes
These courses are the essential building blocks of mosaic art!

Mosaic 101 — Introduction To Mosaics, Exterior And Garden Applications, Grout Clinic, Architectural Applications — Floors And Walls

For more classes go to:
Spring/Summer 2008 Class Schedule or
Download a pdf of the Spring/Summer 2008 Class Schedule

Every month we will be featuring a student artist who is part of our extended community at IMA. Please click the link to read more about the artist's path to mosaics.

Kaye Iverson
Ft. Collins, CO

Words from Kaye...
"My mosaic journey started about a year and a half ago when a friend gave me a very special birthday present. She gave me an evening at her friend's warm glass studio where we made fused glass pendants together. I noticed the instructor also taught a mosaic class. So I signed up. I have always wanted to make garden art with mosaics. I was bitten by the mosaic bug." Read More...

March 7 - April 15
Journey to Center Mosaics from the Mind's Eye
Curated by Lillian Sizemore

Come explore the mandala as a pathway and journey to the center of creative discovery. Along with over 20 glittering mandalas, this stunning mixed-media exhibition includes a large installation composed of drawings, photos and progress shots. The work is testament to experimental techniques, personal stories and powerful symbolic imagery.

April 17th - June 1st
Sherri Warner Hunter: Fragments

Artist's Reception
Thursday, April 24th 6-8 pm

Blue Line, 2008 ceramic mosaic, concrete, rubber, misc.

Mixed media constructions in mosaic, concrete, wood, and found materials. Hunter's new constructions utilize three dimensional forms as gestural mark-making references. Sculptural forms are combined to create abstract pictographs and metaphors using mosaic forms, wood and concrete elements, found objects and materials. Come and enjoy this rare opportunity to see Hunter's magical creations.

March 18 - April 25
Jingletown Junction — Group Exhibit at Pro Arts Gallery, Oakland, CA

Artist's Reception
March 20 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.

Jingletown is a migratory, semi-industrial zone located on the estuary of Oakland and Alameda. Ten artists, all who live and/or work there, all members of the Jingletown Arts and Business Community (JABC) have created artwork for this show, as it stems from their individual experience of living and working in an artists' neighborhood. Each artist uses his/her own medium and creative ideas to make pieces that concern the collaborative experience of this area.

Participating Artists:Alison McLennan, Fernando Reyes, Jill McLennan, Heather Whitehead, Russ Osterweil, Jan Watten, Jon Zax, Kathy Cronin, Bill Silveira and Laurel True. www.jingletown.org.

Pro Arts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland, (510) 763-4361.

Community Built
The Community Built Association Conference was held in Monterey over the weekend of March 15th and it was a wonderful conference. We encourage everyone interested in community building and community development through art, common space, green space and play spaces to check out CBA - it is a wonderful organization. http://www.CommunityBuilt.org

SAMA Conference
Society of American Mosaics Artists will hold their annual conference, the American Mosaic Summit, in Miami this April 2-5th.
http://www.americanmosaics.org/SAMAindex.aspx?id=Conference

In A Dream

Saundra Warren

Filmmaker Jeremiah Zagar's Movie, In A Dream, about mosaic artist/visionary Isaiah and Julia Zagar and family just premiered at SXSW Film Festival. It is an amazingly crafted piece of filmmaking and is receiving many accolades. http://www.inadreammovie.com

Earth Day and JABC
Jingletown Arts And Business Community hosts a neighborhood Earth Day Clean Up and Potluck every year and this year is no exception. Join us Saturday, April 19th at 9 am at IMA for a few hours of clean up followed by a potluck BBQ in the back garden at IMA!

View From the Bay
Institute of Mosaic Art was featured on channel 7 ABC show, View From the Bay on February 29th. Host Laura Quinn talked to director Laurel True about IMA.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=view_from_the_bay/home_garden&id=5990969

Diablo Magazine
IMA and Laurel True were also featured in the February Issue of Diablo Magazine in a nice article by Tina Barseghian Pieces of A Dream.

Jingletown Story
The Fine Art of Community Building by Kwan Booth
http://novometro.com/news_details.php?news_id=2614

Red Sun Sculpture in Progress

Check out the True Mosaics Studio Blog for current project information!
http://truemosaicsstudio.blogspot.com/

Mosaic Studio Supply at SAMA
Mosaic Studio Supply is headed to the SAMA conference with lots of great stuff! We'll be in the Vendor Marketplace with our colors flying so if you plan to be at the conference stop by and say hello!

Just in:
A virtual Treasure Trove of vintage smalti has washed up on our shores! Mosaic Studio Supply has acquired a large collection of smalti dating from pre-1930s in many unusual colors.

This smalti is thought to be from Italy and is of unknown origin — making it all the more mysterious. The smalti came all tied up in little burlap sacks and was accompanied by fragile and crumbling cartellas from both the Dona and Orsoni factories.

To shop online go to: http://www.mosaicstudiosupply.com