Mosaic Intervention in Chile, Jan 2014 - How it all started.....

Way back in the summer of 2012 the wonderful +Nancie Mills Pipgras  - who runs the Mosaic Art Now (MAN) website informed me about the work of +Isidora Paz López taking place in Puente Alto, Chile.    http://www.mosaicartnow.com/artists/isidora-paz-lopez/  The MAN website is the best online resource for mosaics from around the world and I was used to finding out about interesting and usual work, but as soon as I first saw the work of Isidora I was blown away.  The sheer beauty and scale of the work under taken by her and team of artists was breath taking. What made this even more incredible was that the she and the team of artists working with her were relatively new to mosaics.  Although trained as a ceramicist, she was only took up mosaics a few years ago, and was now leading a team of artists working on some of the most visually stunning mosaics I had ever seen. I was so inspired by her work that I wrote to her and asked if it would be possible to come and visit her and see for myself how these mosaics were constructed. . She agreed and we discussed how she would love to actually host some kind of International gathering of mosaic artists, and I explained how I had already been to Argentina and Mexico to work there on similar projects. A friendship started and I started to look around at funding to enable me to travel to Chile. 

Luckily, my mother had told me about the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust - who award travelling fellowships to British citizens from all walks of life to travel overseas, to bring back knowledge and best practice for the benefit of others in their UK professions and communities.  
http://www.wcmt.org.uk/

So I filled in my application form, crossed my fingers and waited....to my surprise I went through to the next round. Nancie and +Norma Vondee  – the President of the British Association of Modern Mosaics  http://www.bamm.org.uk/both gave me references and then I was onto the interview stage.  I had to wait until Feb 2013 for my interview and then was elated to find out that I had won an award.  My only sadness was that my dear mother never knew that I had won as she died in Nov shortly after I first applied for it. I won the award to ‘Advance the craft of community mosaic in the UK’. I would be funded to  travel to both Chile and Mexico, so I could  work alongside fellow mosaic artists,  learn new techniques and document advancements in large scale public and community mosaics.
Not bad for a renegade potter and extreme craftivist!! 

So I got back to Isidora with the good news and she asked me if I had some kind of documentation that I had won the award that she would show German Codina, the Mayor of Puente Alto. I sent her my letter of confirmation and she took it to show him and that was the final push he needed to give Isidora the go ahead (and funding) for the first gathering of mosaic artist's to come in Jan 2014. 

So now 60 International artists will join 20 Chilean ones and together  we will mosaic the front of the local Town Hall -  ( the White House - it does resemble it with its modern colonial style of architecture) with the magical garden theme. 

Below is a short film that shows you the wonderful work of Isidora and her team in Chile.