Helene Rosenfeldt, our treasurer, has a strong art background. She attended Philadelphia College of the Arts. There she studied painting as well as art education. She taught elementary art in Phoenixville art for 4 years. She earned a Master’s degree in early childhood education from Temple University. She taught for many years in a preschool. When she had time, while working and raising her family, she painted with water colors.
When she retired from the school system, she began looking for art classes. Like many of our members, she found Carol Stirton -Broad at Main Line Art Center. She continues to learn from her.
Helene is more interested in the process of making mosaics than the product. She leans towards abstraction. “I take whatever I have, and do what I want”. She prefers using natural materials like beads, glass, metal, rocks, and gems, rather than plates and dishes.
Helene’s pieces are intricate and time consuming. She is not interested in selling them. She just wants to create!
Gail Pinchus also had formal art training. She holds an undergraduate degree in Graphic Art. She worked in publishing and advertising on the production end; a job that has become obsolete because of computers. She subsequently worked with her husband in their business for 30 years, during which she had no time to create art.
Like others, she wanted to return to art after retiring. She has always loved looking at glass at craft shows. She was attracted to mosaics and began searching for classes. Most schools in her immediate vicinity did not offer mosaics, so she drives 45 minutes to Mainline Art School. She found mosaic artists to be a very small community. She joined MSOP and quickly became a member of the Board.
Gail also enrolled in a hand building clay course. She is able to incorporate what she makes into her mosaics.
Most of her works are very time consuming as they are made with very small pieces of stained glass. It feels very natural to her to work this way.
Gail spends winters in Florida. She has her materials shipped to her house so she can complete unfinished projects. She enjoys putting textures into glass as shown in this piece she is currently working on. She plans to mosaic the background black.
Gail still considers herself a “newbie” and is still finding her way. She is becoming technically more adept and improving all the time. She finds educational courses boring but really looks forward to her weekly mosaic and clay classes. She loves doing her art and finds it to be the only thing where “time just flies by”.
I, Marcy Rosner, grew up in a house filled with my family’s art work. My mother, who was an oil painter, dragged me to museums and enrolled me in children’s art classes. I really did not appreciate her talent until I was an adult. While my friends enjoyed their art electives in high school and college, I preferred to write, sew, and embroider. I earned degrees in education and counseling and worked in the field for over 40 years.
While working and raising my children, I dabbled in various arts and crafts, including batik, macrame, and weaving. I tried water color and acrylic painting but really only enjoyed working with textures. I spent years decorating the doll house my husband built; I wall papered, shingled the roof and made many miniature rugs and pillows. I dragged my family to dollhouse stores whenever we traveled. This was my obsession until I discovered mosaics.
The first mosaic I remember noticing was a large mirror in a friend’s house. She told me someone had made it for her, and each piece of tesserae and sea glass had special meaning to the artist. Shortly after, I met a woman who told me she made mosaics from broken dishes. The next time someone in my house broke a dish I had them put it in a plastic bag in a dedicated cabinet. Soon I had enough to make something. A friend of mine was making stained glass and she gave me her scraps. I began frequenting flea markets, thrift stores, and yard sales. I loved this kind of “shopping”. Before I knew it, people were delivering their broken dishes to my front door and I had a basement full of supplies
I purchased a few books and dug in. At first, I made functional pieces like picture frames, tables, and mirrors. Friends were given flower pots, coasters and ornaments as gifts. Eventually I ran out of people and space in my house. A friend of mine who made jewelry suggested we try selling our wares. We started doing some in home parties, craft shows, and gallery exhibits. Soon people were commissioning me to make pieces out of unused furniture and family heirlooms. I was not in it or the money, but selling is very good for the ego and seeing others enjoy my work is rewarding. I love mixing materials and giving new meaning to the word “upcycle”.
In June 2011 my daughter, who had graduated college with a BFA in painting, called and said “I have a project for you.” She knew as a school counselor I was free for the summer. She wanted me to mosaic their 25x15 foot concrete retaining wall. She was getting married at their house in the Poconos in August and thought the was an eyesore. Like any good mother, I said “okay, but you have to help. “ I had no idea what to do so I went to the Magic Garden and got Isaiah Zagar’s video. I was willing to invest time, but not money, so we solicited donations for tesserae. We knew we had to use thinset, but didn’t realize not all tiles could be used. Working together in the heat was a challenge; we each started at a different end, met in the middle, and tried to figure out how to make our different styles transition smoothly. Ultimately, we finished it without killing each other. There was a hurricane during the wedding so few guests looked at it, and it has not held up very well during Pocono winters.
“Wedding Wall”
In 2018 I took a mosaic class with Laura Lyn Stern at Peter’s Valley School of Craft. The many different materials and techniques she introduced us to really broadened my horizons. She told me about MSOP. I went to a meeting, met Veronica, joined the organization, and registered for Veronica’s class at Perkins.
At my retirement luncheon in 2019, someone asked me what I was going to do next. My principal answered “She is going to do ART.” That is exactly what happened.
During the lockdown when Perkins was closed, a few of us took a zoom class with Veronica. We needed some fun in our lives and her suggestion was to mosaic a shoe. I had friends drop off their unused shoes and costume jewelry on my porch. This was the first one I made but received enough supplies for at least 20 more. I have made about 6, including 2 commissions.
In 2021, I took a workshop at Peter’s Valley with Cynthia Fischer. In anticipation in of our “Breathe” exhibit I googled “breathe images” and wound up with her.
“Breathe”
It is the only piece I ever made that I was sorry I sold. I have since made several pieces using thinset as the background. I have also made pieces including whimsical objects. But I have never recreated the feeling I got when I looked at her.
I made the ballerinas for the MSOP “beginnings” exhibit. I found the realistic style to be very intimidating, tedious and time consuming. Fortunately, with Veronica’s help I was able to meet my challenge
‘First Step”
Gigi is the newest addition to our household. She was by far the most daring and challenging project I had ever done, but also the most fun. I carried this mannequin through Columbus flea market and parked her in my studio for a few years, occasionally bumping into her and wondering what to do with the substrate.
My cousin handed me her mother’s salt and pepper shakers last summer and said “Maybe you can do something with these”. I had a good idea but wasn’t sure I had the nerve. I brought the naked girl into my class, and was cheered on. She was the talk of Perkins Center for the Arts for months. I particularly loved taking apart pieces of jewelry for the necklace as a finishing touch. She now sits on my entranceway table in front of a mirror, greeting guests, making quite the statement. I love everything about her, including the butterfly tattoo on her back.
“Gigi”
Mosaics have become a passion for us all. We find the materials and textures pleasurable to work with. Learning new techniques and meeting new challenges keeps us engaged. We are all hoping to grow and improve our skills as artists. The endless possibilities mosaic art offers allow us to do so.
We are also grateful for our MSOP community. Our varying skill sets have helped form a cohesive and very productive Board. We have developed close relationships and friendships. We are a very supportive and inclusive group. We work together, help each other, and learn from one another.