Who's going part 2

Last  July  I was lucky enough to be invited to be the keynote speaker at the Mosaic Association of Australia and New Zealand 2013 conference. http://www.maanz.org/. Whilst there I met the gorgeous mosaic artist Susan Crocenzi .http://scmosaics.com/home.html She was there to run workshops and share her knowledge about creating mosaics  with polymer clay and tempered glass. We hit off straight away and went on the  best coach outing ever to see some adorable outsider mosaic environments near Melbourne. I am so excited that she was one of the fellow artist choosen for this trip and that I am going to get to hang out with this amazing cool dude from Nevada City. Joining her will be her mosaic buddy Kim Grant. http://www.kimgrantmosaics.com/  Kim actually lives in Australia and was one of the members of MAANZ  who opted to do my 'Day of the Dead' mosaic workshop. Kim has long been an online friend so it was great to finally meet her in the flesh. 
I will be meeting for the first time many other mosaic facebook (or as I call it wastebook) friends from around the world. One such artist is Se Van Weert  http://www.sevanweert.nl/nl/home from the Netherlands nearly came over to help me mosaic an elephant for the Milan Elephant parade back in 2011 -but work commitments prevented her from coming over.  She did however go on to do  her own stunning one for the Copenhagen Elephant Parade.

The list just goes on and on - and that is before we even start to talk about the Chilean team. Having seem the quality of the work that they have been producing over the last couple of years, I am honored to be working alongside them.

Finally , the one artist that I know about and have never met, but am most excited about actually working alongside of is the truly inspiring Laurel True. Laurel was the  founder of one of the first formal mosaic institutes in the United States, Institute of Mosaic Art. She began her career in 1990 with an apprenticeship with the legendary outsider mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar.  http://www.phillymagicgardens.org/isaiah/about
I first heard about Laurel through the community mosaics she was helping to construct in Haiti and have been a huge fan ever since. I think she is a real pioneer in pushing the boundaries of global community-based public art. I think that I have a lot to learn from her and I am so looking forward meeting her.