Studio Visits with Mosaicists, Pippa Murray in Northern California and Carrie Reichardt in London

Pippa Murray is a local mosaicist who works on commissions around the world. You can see her work in Spain, Greece and throughout the Bay Area. Pippa was classically trained and is fascinated with traditional mosaic techniques based off of her studies of ancient Greece and Rome. She works with traditional materials and tools. 

Pippa with her daughter, Ithaka

A work in progress

We learned a lot about ancient techniques and design through Pippa's engaging lecture. 

CARRIE REICHARDT

Today we visited with artist, Carrie Reichardt, who lives in the suburbs of London in Chiswick. Carrie is a contemporary mosaicist as you can see from her methods of cutting, use of color, mixed media and design. Reichardt gave a talk on how she became a mosaic artist, ceramicist and activist. Her friendships forged with inmates on death row in Texas influenced her development as an activist artist and led to a 20 year long project, mosaicing the facade of her house.

Take a tour with the BBC below.

Today, Carrie is working on a number of public art projects such as the Elm Tree of Life, which incorporates stories from the local area with the urban environment and its natural past. Carrie collects historical imagery and embeds the images in the tile, a modern technique often used in public art.

Her talk to the students was powerful. (Click on the link for the entire lecture. One hour long. ) Carrie deals with personal trauma through her artwork. It's always inspiring to see artists who use their creations to move out of dark places. Carrie's artwork is anything but dark. It is colorful, playful, uplifting to view and loaded with personal symbolism.