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Miami Update

Tuesday, Feb. 04, 2003
8:22 PM

Well I am back from Miami and catching up on tons of email and other stuff. I'm sure you are all just holding your breath to hear all about it... well, maybe not, but I'm going to tell you anyway. I had an absolute blast! It was so much fun, went by way too fast.

I learned my lesson on double-checking my flight information, as I showed up at Dulles about thirty-five minutes before my plane left - my flight got moved up by twenty minutes. Eek! I did make it though, with a few minutes to spare. Whew.

Got to Miami and met up with some of the other conference folks and split a taxi to the hotel. We got checked in and went out to find some lunch - had a great time, chatting away like old friends. Many SAMA members are on a mosaic artists' Yahoo email list so we've been corresponding for some time. When we went back to the hotel after lunch, a bunch more list members were checking in, and there was much squealing and giggling as we met people for the first time but felt like we were re-connecting after a separation. (Yes, most of us are women. Hence the squealing.) I met Sonia King, one of my mosaic idols, though I didn't get much of a chance to talk to her one on one. She is currently president of SAMA so she was pretty busy the whole time. She is very cool though and I know I can email her with questions or just to chat anytime.

My roommate Lori was really cool - we shared a hotel room so we could split costs. She is from St. Paul, MN and also has a mosaic art business. She's gotten more commissions than I have, but she's been doing this longer. She was really sweet and we had lots of great conversations.

Stayed up way too late at the hotel bar talking with people and geeking over mosaics. One lady brought down some mosaic pendants made by another list member who couldn't make it to the conference so we ooh'd and ahh'd over those for a while. They were very spif. We were waiting for a couple more list members to make it in so we had drinks (really expensive drinks) and just hung out for a while. Finally went to bed.

Thursday was workshop day. In the morning was Sonia's lecture-style workshop, called Mosaics A-Z. She covered a lot of material in just a couple of hours. Some of it I already knew, but she gave a lot of specific info that I didn't have. I learned a lot and took a lot of notes so I wouldn't forget everything! The second workshop I took was called Working in Stone and it was SO cool. I learned how to use a hammer and hardie, which I've been wanting to do for a while. We cut black and white marble and I didn't even whack my fingers off. I really suck at cutting marble this way, but I know it takes a lot of practice to get good. The instructor, who is Italian and trained in Italy, said that the mosaic schools in Rome only let students cut materials for three months - only after that can they start working on actual mosaics. Makes sense to me. We started working on making 12" square floor panels with the tesserae we had cut, but we didn't have enough time to finish. I didn't have enough room to take mine home on the plane so the lady who sat next to me in class adopted mine.

I didn't take the third workshop so I had the rest of the afternoon free. I went to Starbucks and got a nice good caffeine fix and chilled out a little. That evening was the gallery show reception. I think it's really cool that SAMA sponsors a gallery show - it's great to see other people's work, so many different styles and techniques. The reception was pretty crowded and noisy, but that didn't matter. Seeing all these fabulous pieces of art was just so incredible.

I have rarely had the opportunity to see mosaic work (other than my own) in person - I should say, contemporary work. I've seen lots of historical work in Italy. Seeing work in person is so different from seeing pictures in books. It really is such a textural, tactile art form - it's not just painting in glass, it's way beyond that. The heart of mosaic is the material itself. I wish I could express it more articulately, but I really had a bit of an epiphany that night. I am really inspired and I want to enter something in next year's show.

Friday was the annual membership meeting, which was interesting. I was amazed at how much the organization has grown - in less than a year, it has gone from 187 members to 511. We talked about plans for the group, stuff like promotion of the organization, eventually hiring a part-time executive director, etc. We talked about plans for next year's conference, which is going to be in San Francisco. I hope I'll be able to go - this one was so much fun.

The rest of Friday was lectures and presentations. There were some slideshows of different artists' work, including one on poor outsider artists in Brazil. There was a panel on running a business, some of which was helpful and some not. I really enjoyed all the presentations that day and learned a lot. After the presentations were done, the vendor show opened. I really couldn't afford to spend too much money, but I got a couple of books and picked up catalogs and cards from most of the vendors there. One vendor who is manufacturing a new line of vitreous glass handed out ziploc bags of tile samples to everyone passing by, which was cool. They have some nice colors. I got a catalog for the gallery show, which I will probably bring to Ymir and bore everyone silly with it.

Friday night was the only real disaster of the whole conference. We had the option of paying $15 in advance for dinner and wine at a nearby restaurant - OK, no problem. Dinner was described as a buffet of various appetizers - less impressive but still fine. We got to the restaurant, were directed upstairs to a sort of balcony area with very few tables. It's hot and crowded and noisy. Turns out our $15 covers one (1) glass of wine and whatever hors d'oeuvres we can snatch off of passing trays. (We're talking crackers and cheese here.) Since Lori is six months pregnant, she ended up with a $15 glass of water. We were Not Impressed. A bunch of us finally left and went to get real dinner somewhere else (the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company - good spinach dip).

Saturday morning was a continuation of the vendor show, which I didn't feel the need to go back to, so I went back to the gallery to take a second look at the pieces on display, without so many people around. I got a better look at some pieces and noticed new things. Then the presentations started again for the rest of the afternoon. I skipped one so I could go get some lunch but other than that I stayed for all of them. The last one was really bizarre - a couple who do "collage mosaic" and think they are literally God's gift to mosaic art. They were not mean or nasty people but a bit egotistical... and I didn't even like their work. Oh well.

Saturday night was the closing party - it was held in a large gallery in the design district. The conference folks really worked hard to make up for Friday night's debacle. They hired a steel drum band, which was pretty cool, and had food and wine brought in (that we didn't have to pay for). The food was Cuban and pretty good. It was fun, though noisy when the band was playing. We eventually cut out and headed back to the hotel. We were seriously sleep-deprived at this point, but what did Lori and I do? Stayed up until 12:30 talking. Then we got up at 5:45 to get our stuff together and head to the airport for the trip home.

I had a fantastic time - it was so amazing to be with so many other people who do mosaics too. The camraderie and energy among all the people were incredible. Everyone was so nice; I didn't meet a single person that I didn't like or rubbed me the wrong way (there was one lady who maybe was not as skilled socially, but she was sweet). I have so many ideas for new mosaics and I'm so excited to get started. I really feel that going to this conference has changed my life. I feel now more than ever that this is what I'm meant to do with my life. It is an amazingly good feeling - like coming home.

Actually coming home was good too though - I missed my sweetie and I was very tired. I took a nap for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon, which helped. I'm pretty much caught up on sleep, though not on email yet. I miss my mosaic buddies but it's nice to not be living out of a suitcase. And did I mention I missed my sweetie?

That is about all for now. I've hit the highlights of the trip, though there was so much more that I could go on and on about. Look for more mosaic work from me soon!

Tomorrow I go to get my wisdom teeth yanked out. Yippee. I'll be spending the rest of the day on the couch, doped up on pain drugs and probably drooling on myself. On the bright side, I get to eat jello and pudding and ice cream without guilt. Not that I feel guilt about eating them anyway, but hey...

Ciao!


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