BAMM Forum 2018 Speakers

John Sollinger

Sharing my own path, my techniques and my mosaics

Solly is an artist and educator, based in Ashland, Oregon, USA.  With stained glass pieces chaotically arranged, he produces mosaic wall-hangings that portray plants and fire or water in realistic-to-impressionistic landscapes of Western USA forests.  His techniques developed in isolation, and his visual vocabulary was sculpted by biology. Solly has earned major awards in international, mosaic and all-media competitions. He presents at mosaic conferences and offers workshops at home and overseas.  In USA his mosaics have been featured in popular press, coffee-table books, trade journals, art magazines and advertisements for art organizations and competitions.  His talk will focus on his personal approach and describe his path, techniques and mosaics.

Charlotte Webster

Communication professional and founder of Human Nature

Charlotte Webster is a communications professional with over 13 years experience in building multi media campaigns. She founded the arts organisation Human Nature which has mounted environmental art exhibitions and public arts events in the UK and US including ENDANGERED13 and The Art of Beeing.  She is currently working with urban arts organisation Moniker Culture to support contemporary public art in London. Her work has been supported by a range of philanthropic and private organisations and has featured in national news media and journals.  Charlotte studied Geographical Sciences at University of Bristol and is also a part-time artist.

Communication starts at the idea stage, not when the wall is drying. This talk explores how to make work really resonate - by thinking about communications from the outset of any project. Thinking like a communicator can help to secure partners, funding, and ultimately enable you to have more impact with your audience. Drawing on the example of Human Nature and its public arts projects ENDANGERED13 and The Art of Beeing - funded by multiple private and philanthropic organisations and featured by media worldwide.

BAMM North

Flying to Freedom

Coralie Turpin is a public and community artist who studied for her BA(Hons) in Fine Art Sculpture in Sheffield.  She has over 20 years of experience in making work for exhibitions, commissioned projects for public spaces, private individuals and working with groups to realise their specific ideas and enrich their environments and communities, drawing on industrial processes where necessary.  Coralie teaches mosaic in her studio at Yorkshire Artspace’s Persistence Works in Sheffield. Her current work reflects her fascination with scale, colour, texture, geology, mineral structures and migrating birds. She has two children and enjoys walking in the Peak District.

Jen Watson is a mosaic tutor, artist, teacher, work shop facilitator and art enthusiast, with a studio in Ossett, in Yorkshire (Ossett Arts).  She works and teaches at Ossett Arts but also travels to teach.  She has completed two successful workshops at The Hepworth Wakefield and has set her sights on working with other national galleries across the country.  She feels very fortunate to have been introduced to BAMM through a chance meeting with a fellow mosaicist and has been a member of what she describes as a ‘fantastic association’ for 3 years now.  This will be her first BAMM Forum!

Diana Storey, also based in Sheffield, produces 2-d and 3-d works that are colourful, expansive, textural observations of the world around her, inspired by poetry. She works best early in the morning, using ceramics, jewellery, mirror and figurines to create narrative pieces of art. Diana originally studied history but has been making murals for 20 years, with schools and community groups in the UK and overseas including Oman, Mexico, Buenos Aires and France.  In Sheffield, she specialises in commissions for hairdressers, inspired by Aubrey Beardsley.  She has four inspirational children and enjoys travelling, cycling and salsa dancing with her partner Alan.

Carrie Reichardt

Craftivist

Carrie’s work blurs the boundaries between craft and activism, using the techniques of ceramic and mosaic to create intricate, politicised works of art. Following studies at Kingston University and a 1st class degree in Fine Art from Leeds Metropolitan, she has been involved in international community and public art projects for over two decades. Carrie has designed and consulted on large scale mosaic murals and completed public projects celebrating with local communities in Mexico, Chile, and Argentina.  Her work features regularly in the press and in books. It has included a ceramic installation on the facade of the V&A, where her Tiki Love Truck, was the star exhibit of the acclaimed Disobedient Objects exhibition.

Recently Carrie became the first visual artist in residence at Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Her work intersects craft and activism, using mural, mosaic and screen-printing to forge a pioneering aesthetic. Inspired by the British tradition of subversive ceramics, the art is characteristically colourful, attuned to the tactile as much as the visual, incorporating text to convey a powerful message.  She has created and trademarked the ‘Mad in England’ brand and has been producing a series of subversive souvenirs, which offer a postmodern and humorous comment on kitsch consumerism.

Carrie will discuss the importance of narrative-based art in highlighting individual and collective stories that have otherwise been whitewashed from history, and the powerful role that heritage-based art and objects can play in establishing and maintaining civic agency and identity.

Will Wootton

Bringing the Classical to contemporary mosaics

Will Wootton is a specialist on ancient craft production whose academic work crosses the boundaries between archaeology, heritage, art history and contemporary practice. He has published extensively on Graeco-Roman artistic production, producing innovative digital projects on Roman stonecarving ¬– see www.artofmaking.ac.uk – and writing about how mosaics were made and the social history of mosaicists. He runs capacity-building projects around the Mediterranean focused on conservation and heritage management. He has a deep interest in current mosaic, having worked with Marjorie Knowles on her commissions, and is passionate about the dissemination of ancient techniques to modern makers.

Will’s talk entitled ‘Bringing the Classical to Contemporary Mosaics’ – will focus on two aspects: the present value of understanding the ancient mosaic tradition and how such knowledge is currently being disseminated. He will discuss various elements of Classical design and technique to demonstrate their contemporary importance and go on to describe how workshops and other methods being used to engage people with these ancient practices. The conclusions will look to the future, considering how this relationship between past and present might be developed.

Julie Norburn

Director, Art4Space

Julie Norburn originally graduated in Community Art and Education Studies, then qualified as a teacher.  She has experience of teaching children and adults with varied needs and abilities in many community contexts. She has trained in counselling and therapeutic work with children and has extensive experience in lecturing and consultancy.  Past roles have included Stockwell Studios Education Outreach Co-ordinator, chief curator for Stockwell Studios Artists Open Shows, festival workshop leader at festivals, including hames Festival, Notting Hill Carnival and Sydney Mardi Gras. She has also project managed a number of public art projects.

Julie has also worked on overseas projects in India and as part of the Urban Mosaic intervention project in Chile.

Mosaic is her real passion and she has become an established artist in this field. Trained in Ravenna, Italy, studying ancient application, Julie’s work has been exhibited in many London venues.

In 1999 she collaborated with Danielle Lees-Smith and Elinor Seath in establishing Art4Space – a successful community arts organisation who have now completed over 350 commissions.

Pecha Kucha

Each presenter to use 20 slides with 20 seconds for each slide.

Anne Schwegmann-Fielding – River of Life

Anne is a sculptor and mosaic artist, who has been creating artworks using predominantly recycled materials for commission and exhibition since the early 1990's.  She is based in the Roman capital of Britain, Colchester.  Her clients have included councils, hospitals, zoos, museums, schools, farms and businesses.  Anne also creates smaller bespoke pieces for exhibitions, homes, awards and celebrations.  She has won several awards and appeared on various TV programmes.

Her presentation focuses on a recent project, commissioned by Colchester Hospital’s Organ Donation Committee, to recognise the amazing gift of life organ donation represents. Installed in the main entrance to the hospital, the mosaic is 6m by 2m and includes donated crockery, sea glass, buttons and jewels.  Created using carefully cut plates, donated by local people, including staff, donor families and organ recipients, the artwork celebrates coastal Essex, its rivers, estuaries and wildlife and represents the ebb and flow of the River of Life.  It incorporates a poem commissioned by Martin Newell, as a message of thanks to all those families affected by organ donation.

Joanna Kessel

Inspiring people with dementia – it works both ways!

Joanna designs work for public and private spaces and all of her work is unique and site-specific. To this end her work reflects the immediate environment, encouraging observation of, and investigation into, the locality with visual motifs referencing local parks and plants, architectural detail and local communities.  This involves community engagement as an integral part of the public commissioning process. Joanna  believes that visually stimulating environments have a huge impact on our general sense of well being and enjoyment of work, recreation and recuperation settings. She is passionate about working in health care settings and her family background in medicine has helped shape her interest in approach to the creation of art works that can contribute to the healing process.  Joanna is currently undertaking research, primarily looking at mosaic, tile work and marble and terrazzo flooring, as well as gardens that incorporate structures, sculpture and paving of interest in Europe and this will form the basis for a new body of work exploring the potential of the combination of these materials with an enriched design input.  Joanna’s talk will be about the challenges and rewards, of designing and delivering a series of mosaic workshops for people with dementia at the National Museum of Scotland.  Supported by Crafts Scotland through their Meet Your Maker programme.

John O’Brien - Our Marvellous Mosaic 

John took up mosaic art in 2004 after he retired and got involved with East Sheen Primary School after hearing from the chair of governors that, following a fire and rebuilding, there was a wall crying out for decoration.  The completed mosaic measures 7.2m by 1.4m and was completed over 7 years, involving over 1,000 pupils.  The mosaic is based on birds, with three panels depicting Birds of the Past, Birds of the Present and Birds in Peril.  Pupils at the school were asked to draw birds which became the basis for the mosaic and as many pupils as possible were given the opportunity to assist with the making. 

Designed in the classic Roman style, the mosaic is made glass and unglazed ceramic tiles, gold smalti, Hama Beads and even a nail. The mosaic substrate is Perspex, chosen for its ability to withstand the elements. Each tile was cut and placed by pupils and came up with safe ways to cut the tiles including using a fizzy drinks bottle with the top removed so children could cut glass tiles inside without risk of splinters.

Each bird, including the glittering golden owl sitting in a tree, looks towards the central, hovering kestrel which provides a focal point for the work, with the background carefully graded using six colours. A tree-trunk border frames the mosaic, which is flanked with the school’s original logo and year of opening along with the new logo and year the artwork was completed.  It also depicts the four seasons and a thought-provoking verse.

Coralie Turpin

The Ulley Reservoir Mosaic Project

In 2007 a breach of the dam wall due to heavy rainfall at Ulley Reservoir in Rotherham caused major disruption and threat to life, houses were evacuated and the M1 closed while firemen struggled to divert the water and prevent 120 million gallons of water from flooding the area.

Coralie's Pecha Kucha will be about how she gained inspiration to design a 4m long mosaic commission to commemorate 10 years since the event by talking to the first on the scene; and how she worked with local communities to produce 14 smaller mosaics.