Huntington Woods artist premiers in Mosaic Arts International
Light reflects on different shapes and textures of thoughtfully arranged glass, bringing life and movement to artist Michelle Sider’s mosaic, “Blue Heron.”
Sider says the bird is one of her favorites to watch, so it made a fun subject. She worked to capture the species’ temperament — and motion — through small bits of glass and stone.
“As a lifelong Michigander, I often choose subjects which reflect a sense of place and identity,” says Sider, of Huntington Woods. “Being surrounded by these large and fascinating birds in and near the lakes by my home, I thought it would be an interesting challenge to capture their character.”
Sider’s “Blue Heron” was selected for inclusion in the Society of American Mosaic Artists’ Mosaic Arts International exhibit, which features 54 works from artists around the world.
Sider spent 115 hours working on the piece. A lifelong artist, she has a background as a painter, but began her mosaic journey four years ago. For this piece, her process started with gathering blue heron photos and creating a black-and-white sketch. She then added color, and later, turned the image it into a full-scale painting then layered glass and stone upon it.
She spent several weeks searching for “the perfect glass and materials” and once she chose the right materials, she cut the glass and spent time rearranging and reworking the piece until she felt satisfied with her work.
Sider uses repurposed materials and specialty glass from around the world in her mosaics, to highlight “different textures, colors, thickness and luminosity.” She says some of the materials she works with “are considered art forms themselves,” and she looks forward to the challenge of using them to discover new material combinations.
“For this piece, I used a combination of stained and iridized glass and gold to capture the ways in which sunlight plays upon the surface of water. I then chose stone and a variety of Italian smalti to create the layered textures, volume and density of the heron,” Sider