Take 5+ With Pam Stratton
- How did you get started in mosaic art? About 11 years ago, my partner and I made a 25’x25’ brick patio of intersecting concentric circles that was inspired by all the beautiful piazzas in Italy. The center of each circle was a 8 inch circle that we needed to do something with. We placed pieces of brick and stone in the cement filled Sonotube slices to make small mosaics of our favorite things and places. That got me going. I then found a class that met once a week at Mass Art in Boston and made my first mosaic. But what really got me excited about mosaic art was Lynn Moore at Mosaic Smalti. After her class I made my Sunflower mosaic. I met Bill Buckingham and Michael Welch at a Cambridge mosaic show and tell where I brought my sunflower mosaic, that was also inspired by that same trip to Italy. Bill loved it and It became the cover for the catalog of the first Somerville Mosaic Exhibition. The rest is history.
2. What or who inspires you?
Wanting to create art for outside was my original inspiration. I am coming back to that now. I love the Spilimbergo Style. Currently I am enthralled with Dino Maccini’s work.
3. What is your favorite material and why?
I am a texture person. I like smalti and stone. I find the natural hues of stone and the bling of smalti pair really well. As a kid, I had a rock collection and always found geology interesting. I love fossils.
4. Where would you like to see your art go over the next few years?
I have started playing with encaustic wax and cold wax and oil paint in my mosaic work. I aspire to create abstract art integrating these materials and techniques.
5. Share a tip, either mosaic or life?
Let yourself play! My best work seems to come from letting myself be free and experimenting.
6. Why do you mosaic?
Mosaic was what made sense for outdoor art. I enjoy a beautiful yard and the hands on physical making of the art. I find the process meditative.
7. What is the best workshop you have taken and why?
Meeting Dagmar Friedrich in Spilimbergo Italy and learning the lime plaster technique. I really like open quiet space in a mosaic, the old world feeling it can give or the totally modern effect it can also create.
8. What are you working on now?
I am working with some hand made bark paper and encaustic wax with stone. I also have the challenge of integrating mosaic into a tree I am having carved into a sculpture in my yard.