Susan Allen, a member of MSOP, has found her passion: Mosaics. She is a trained scientist and physician who has found her healing art. She is amazed at the beauty that can be created during difficult times in life. I had the pleasure of speaking with her about her latest exhibit and her true source of pleasure.
Susan’s current work is on exhibit at the Art League of Ocean City, Maryland, for the month of May. In her words, “This exhibition is dedicated to the concepts of repurposing and re-creation.” She was thrilled with the opening reception on May 5, when about 150 people attended. She received very positive feedback as the viewers were amazed at her unusual substrates. For her it was a very validating experience.
It was an important exhibit to show people what mosaic art is about. As mosaic artists, we often do not get the due respect and recognition we deserve.
Susan took her first mosaic class in 2017 and has created an amazing body of work in such short time. She has attended SAMA conferences a few times, but concludes she is basically self-taught. When she became housebound due to health issues and could no longer work as a physician, she needed an outlet to fill her days. She finally had time to explore a long-time interest.
Susan’s scientific background taught her the skills she uses to create her beautiful works of mosaic art. Analyzing data during her career helped her become very detail oriented. As a child she loved doing jigsaw puzzles, and assembling the small pieces of a jigsaw puzzle into a beautiful whole piece of art translated directly to her interest in mosaics. The practice of creating a mosaic enables her to fit her materials together to form beautiful themes and patterns on small substrates. Her precision is outstanding.
For her current exhibit (“Mosaic Melodies”), Susan decided she wanted to repurpose musical instruments that had been discarded and had outlived their original use. She wanted to give them a second chance to serve a useful purpose. Through her art, they are viewed differently. They are appreciated visually rather that auditorily.
Once Susan’s vision for the creation of mosaic stringed instruments was clear, she had to find the used instruments. She began searching online and found a variety of sizes and shapes of donated stringed instruments such as violins and ukuleles at the Goodwill website.
Once she found the substrates and began creating, she was hooked. Her studio became a haven where she could spend hours without thoughts of health and illness. She loved creating mosaic stringed instruments so much, she made ten pieces between October and April for the Maryland exhibit. Eight out of the ten are for sale, but she is keeping two that really spoke to her heart. She also made it clear she would find places for the ones that are not purchased. She uses a custom hanging system specifically designed for each piece for display.
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Susan is particularly intrigued with violins. When she described them to me, I felt her passion. She loves their shape and elegance. She welcomes the challenges of their curvature and limited space she has to create the design. She often mixes materials made of tile, ceramic, glass and metal in these pieces to provide a 3-D effect that she likes. One of her most interesting pieces is a child’s violin that contains a personal “calling card” (somewhat like today’s business cards) that dates to the 1930’s. The angel-shaped card was found in an antique store in Pennsylvania and as soon as she saw it, Susan knew how she wanted to use it on a pink child’s violin that she had just purchased. She attached the card to the violin first, decoupaged it in place, and then tiled around it for this piece.
“Baby Pink Dreams” Approximate size 12”x15”
Susan always preps her substrate violins before attaching the tesserae for her mosaic instruments. She sands them to remove the varnish then applies a primer such as Kilz. She paints some areas that she knows she won’t grout. Usually, she just primes the front of the instrument that will be mosaiced.
Another challenging piece Susan made was one that came broken with evidence of many years of use. The neck completely detached from the body of the violin, and the front, sides and back of the instrument showed tremendous wear and tear. She had to reconstruct the entire instrument before adding tesserae.
Below are the before and after pictures.
“Floral Notes” Approximate size 18”x6.5”
Each piece in the exhibit has a unique theme. I asked where her inspirations came from and her answer was “They just come to me; part of my creative brain.” We should all be so lucky! For years she used her left side of her brain as a scientist; now the right side of her brain is in overdrive. She keeps a journal next to her bed so when ideas pop in while she is sleeping, she can draw them or write them down.
“Let the Music Play ” Approximate size 24”x9”
“Mahalo Melody” Approximate size 21”x7”
“Rhapsody in Ice Blue” Approximate size 24”x9”
“Ocean View” Approximate size 24”x9”
Susan also loves to teach mosaic classes and has been teaching them for the past four years. Sharing this art form with others brings her tremendous joy, and some of her students have become her dearest friends.
When I asked her what the future holds, her answer was “I have no doubt that I will continue to make mosaic stringed instruments, and I have just purchased a viola that will be a project in the near future. One of the things I enjoy most is learning new mosaic techniques and applying those techniques to the creation of new pieces that are often on unusual substrates. My life would not feel complete without sharing my knowledge of and love for mosaics with others, so I plan to continue teaching classes as often as I can. In addition, my first piece of public art entitled “Monarch on Butterfly Bush” was just installed in a public park in the city of Lewes, Delaware. I donated this piece to the city of Lewes so that the public could enjoy it as much as I have, and I have a feeling there will be more of those to come in the future.”
“Monarch on Butterfly Bush”