Dear friends and colleagues,
NANCIE MILLS PIPGRAS of Mosaic Art Now fame saved the bacon by dropping everything to run the show switchboard last minute on Sunday when I couldn't log in from my computer. Yeah, Nancie!
So... with this talent on board, with EMMA BIGGS' interview cued up and with JIM BOWEN scheduled to call in to discuss the National Mosaic Exhibition on Cape Cod, it turned into an all-mosaic Mosaic of Art.
Consequently, I've deferred interviews with PETER DOLAN of Andrea Schwartz Gallery and collector, MARTY WATSON until Sunday the 16th.
EMMA BIGGS works at the forefront of mosaic art - in great demand to create features for public settings of all sorts: pavement inserts, fountains, park furnishings, as well as original designs for commercial and residential settings. She's been working, writing and teaching since the late 1980s. In a conversation I will air on Sunday's show, she speaks about her artistic evolution and how she views contemporary mosaic practice in the broader arts community - among other things!
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EMMA BIGGS, Water feature in Sheffield England detail
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Many of her pieces pay homage to historical traditions, that she combines with careful graphic study and attention to scale and thematic setting.
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EMMA BIGGS, Race Course at Ebbisham Centre detail
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Biggs' grasp of compositional elements is further expressed in her teaching and writing about mosaic design and execution. The social and design components of so-called decorative arts production are featured in some of her major projects that draw on the social legacy of industrial, craft and trade practice and involve extensive research and documentation as well as artistic production.
Her Made in England project exemplifies this work.
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EMMA BIGGS and MATTHEW COLLINGS, 5 Sisters
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For the 5 Sisters project in the York Saint Mary's exhibition space, a deconsecrated church, she utilized shards of 13th and 14th century pottery to create rondels that echo motifs in the stained glass. She was joined by her husband, art critic, MATTHEW COLLINGS, in also creating a coordinated suite of subtly toned paintings. They describe their goals and process eloquently on their joint web site. The story is also extensively documented on the Mosaic Art Now blog.
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EMMA BIGGS and MATTHEW COLLINGS, 5 Sisters detail; Clay End and Paintress
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The paintings they create together and also exhibit in commercial galleries provide valuable insight into the complexities of the contemporary art world. The late BILL BUCKINGHAM and Mosaic Art Now co-editor NANCIE MILLS PIPGRAS understandably chose Biggs and Collings (along with gallerist BERNICE STEINBAUM) as jurors for the magazine's 2011 Exhibition in Print.
Here's an excerpt from Collings' writing about their work at the Simon Oldfield Gallery.
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EMMA BIGGS and MATTHEW COLLINGS, A System That Does Not Produce Uniformity
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In the abstract paintings my painting partner, Emma Biggs, and I create, we try to get that real world hard work back in the picture. We're not so interested in the recent entrenched tradition of non-visuality (with its corresponding emphasis on meaning, where the meaning is not embodied in objects but instead floats somewhere nearby waiting for someone to explain it). That's why we liked being in this exhibition at Simon Oldfield. It was a step in the right direction, as far as our agenda is concerned.
Please tune in on Sunday, 3-4pm EST to the Mosaic of Art on Blogtalkradio.
Warmest regards,
George