custom mosaic & ceramic design
Artist Statement
My attraction to clay and glass has blossomed into a love affair with the mediums of clay and mosaics over the last 25 years. Delving through junk drawers, trash piles, and stained glass shops unearths treasures that become seeds for the next mosaic and represent important themes in my work. The gorgeous, colored art glass brings life and freshness while creating movement and harmony. The reflective quality of the iridescent glass brings a water element as does the mirror. The clay is my natural, earthy and textural element which grounds the piece and often provides my focal points. The found objects represent our community and relationships. Metaphorically, the practice of putting broken things together reminds me, and I hope those that enjoy my work, that we are all a mosaic – fragments of time and experiences, hopes and disillusionments, joy and suffering that come together in the end with some kind of truth and beauty intact.
The ability to analyze and develop creative solutions to a myriad of artistic projects in collaboration with other stakeholders defines why I enjoy what I do. Determining ways to efficiently create a 20' long mosaic on a curved wall with 15 students; finding a solution to designing, fabricating and hanging a 150 lb. mosaic for Army Headquarters at Fort Jackson; and collaborating with 17 Haitian teenagers on an exterior mosaic in 100 degree temperatures without speaking each other’s language are all examples of persistence, experience and success that makes what I do so worthwhile and exciting.
Reflections on Mosaic Making
One of the very first mosaics I ever made hangs in a small room in our home across from a west facing window. It was made from a wooden Mickey Mouse paddle long discarded by one of our sons. After priming the board and placing a round mirror in the center of the paddle, I began adding the tesserae. This included an old watch, a crystal teardrop from a chandelier, a shell, tiny ceramic flowers from a broken vase, a gaudy earring and bits and pieces of tile and glass. After grouting and polishing, I was proud enough of it to give it wall space in our home and to this day, it remains one of my favorite pieces. When the light hits the iridescent glass the piece sings.
So began what has become a fifteen year journey with clay, glass and other bits of tesserae found in our stashes, junk drawers and trash piles. These elements represent important themes in my work. The gorgeous, colored art glass brings life and freshness. This element also connects us to the sacred and creates patterns, movement and harmony. The reflective quality of the iridescent glass brings a water element as does the mirror. The clay is my natural, earthy and textural element. This grounds the piece and often provides my focal points. The found objects represent our humanity, community and our relationships. All of my mosaics incorporate qualities of landscapes with human intervention. As a child, my world was the low country - beaches, marshes and back yards. As an adult, mountains, rivers and forests have been our playgrounds and cathedrals. These environments inform the textures, patterns and symbols in my work while what we do in them or to them inform how I choose and place the objects. The lure of creating the feel of a moonlit night, the shimmer of water, the massiveness of a tree is a constant challenge and tug to keep making more.
Metaphorically, the practice of putting broken things together reminds me, and I hope those that enjoy my work, that we are all a mosaic – fragments of time and experiences, hopes and disillusionments, joy and suffering that come together in the end with some kind of truth and beauty intact. A shattered mirror, the shards of a broken platter, the coin from another country, and the watch that no longer keeps time become avenues of expression and a way to recall a memory, bring new meaning to an old piece or simply a dance of light on a surface. This blending of the old with the new and resurrecting the broken remnants of our lives resurfaces in my smallest wall hangings to large sculptural forms.
Throughout my career the challenge of the project or commission heightens my enthusiasm to find solutions to sometimes technical problems. What adhesive to use on steel; what wall board to use on a curved wall; how to hang a 10’ tall triangular 150lb mosaic on a brick wall; how to create harmony among 15 different sculptures in the same outdoor space; how to communicate and work with 12 Haitian Girls whose language you do not speak let alone getting me and the materials to them. These are challenges that have surfaced in the last several years but ones that I welcome. As I figure these things out, I am also creating a space onto which something remarkable can happen – the interaction of light, color and form, a new home for discarded things and a connection to that very first mirror that hangs in that small space in our home.
Info
Angel Allen, Mosaic and Ceramic Artist, Educator
363 Kelly Mountain Road
Brevard, NC 28712
803-331-9069
Biography/Resume:
Angel Allen, Mosaic and Ceramic Artist, Educator
363 Kelly Mountain Road, Brevard, NC 28712
803-331-9069
Drawing from a degree in fine art, twenty-four years experience as a business owner and fine art craftsman and twelve years as an art teacher, the lure of learning never stops. From the studio to the classroom, it is a perpetual quest to find the truth in the art I produce and the art that I teach. Strongly influenced by my relationship with my family, time spent outdoors and the myriad shapes, colors, and textures formed from the rhythms of daily life, I continue to create one-of-kind art pieces for individuals and communities.
Birth: July 14, 1962
Education:
Post-graduate work toward an MAT, University of South Carolina, 1985-86
University of South Caroline, Bachelor of Arts Degree, 1985
Undergraduate studies, College of Charleston, Wofford College, 1982, 1983
Employment:
Studio Potter, Angel Allen Studios, 1987-present
Art Educator, Cardinal Newman School, 2002-2020
Art Department Head, Cardinal Newman School, 2011-2020
Mosaic Workshop Instructor, 2009 – present
Summer Camp Instructor, Pottery and Mosaics, Columbia Museum of Art, 2012-2019
SC Arts Commission, Artist in Residency, Roster of Approved Artist, 2005-2019
Assistant, Guy Lipscomb Studio, SC 1988-1994
Art Director, The Broome Agency, Columbia, SC 1985-1988
Artist Residencies:
Wild Acres Guest Artist, Little Switzerland, NC, Summer 2019
Mepkin Abbey - Trappists Monastery, Moncks Corner, SC, summer 2017
My Fathers Guest House, Port Au Prince, Haiti, summer 2016
Tin Shop Guest Artist, Breckenridge, Colorado, summer 2015
Public Art Projects & Group Shows:
Vista Neighborhood Association Utility Wrap of “Brown Girls,” 2017
Mepkin Abbey, Moncks Corner, SC, “Wander That Way,” Mixed-media Mosaic, 2017
SC Arts Commission April Showers Art Sale, “Tea Party, “ Mixed-media Mosaic, 2017
My Fathers Guest House, Port Au Prince, Haiti, “Butterfly” Mosaic, 2016
Art Fields 2016, Lake City, SC; Both Sides of the Racial Divide
Cardinal Newman School, Columbia, SC; “Our Lady of Joyful Hope” Mosaic, 2016
2015 South Carolina State Fair, “Bull Island In My Dreams”
St. Peter’s Catholic School “Holy Spirit” Mosaic, 2015
Art Fields 2013, Lake City, SC; Iconic Respite, 2012
Cardinal Newman School Community Mosaic Sculpture, “Athletes in Action and on the Wall,” Cardinal Newman School High School Art Club, 2011-12
SC Arts Commission, Artist in Residency, “The Commonality of Joy” Sculpture, St. Joseph School, Columbia, SC, 2007
Door Project, “Entrée,” Cultural Councils of Richland and Lexington Counties, 2002
Palmetto Tree Project, “Fried Flounder,” Cultural Council of Richland and Lexington Counties, 2000
Commissions:
Chapel Wall, Cardinal Newman School, new campus mosaic, 2015
Nativity, Mepkin Abbey Creche Festival, Monks Corner, SC, 2011, 2012;
“The Brown Girls,” Columbia, SC; 2012
TL Hanna High School, Class of 1970 memorial mosaic, 2012
St Joseph Catholic Church, Stations of the Cross for the prayer and columbarium garden, Columbia, SC, 2010
“Holy Family Mosaic, Sculpture, St. Joseph Church, 2005
EdVenture Children’s Museum, Mosaic Donor Wall design, development, and installation, 2003
Innumerable residential fireplace surrounds; kitchen backsplashes
Awards and Publications:
Toni Elkins Award of Merit, “Bull Island In My Dreams,” South Carolina State Fair, 2015
Mepkin Abbey, Finding Bethlehem, Moncks Corner, South Carolina; 2012
Ginny Fretwell, “A Fine Tribute.” Anderson News [Anderson, SC], December 6, 2012
Carolyn McClendon Excellence in Teaching Award, Cardinal Newman School, 2010-2011
Christina Lee Knauss, “Art Brings Beauty to Catholic Worship and Space,” The Catholic Miscellany
[Charleston, SC]November 245, 2010Megan Sexton, “Tiles & Styles.”The State Newspaper, [Columbia, SC] June 26, 2004
Community:
Columbia Museum of Art Educator Committee, 2012-present
Midlands Clay Arts Society, 2012 - present