MSoP Workshop - ABSTRACT FACES: A LEFT TURN FROM REALISM - By Claire Brill

Dates and Hours: Monday, June 30, 2025 7-8:30 PM via ZOOM Saturday July 12, 2025. 9 AM - 5 PM Sunday July 13, 2025, 9AM - 5 PM Claire Brill is a full-time mosaic artist who works out of her home studio in Media, PA. After creating dozens of large-scale community mosaics, Claire now focuses on her individual art and teaches at Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia. Her years-long studies at the Chicago Mosaic School have included influential teachers Verdiano Marzi and Dugald Macinnes. Eighteen months ago Claire began making contour drawings of people on Zoom events. Her mosaic faces series emerged from those drawings. Claire believes mosaic is an expressive, fine art form where material choice and andamento are as much or more important than subject matter. She tells herself and students that it’s okay to make “weird” work - how many people “like it” doesn’t dictate its value. But how can you create a mosaic face without doing a realistic portrait? In this workshop, Claire Brill will share her method with workshop participants. She will show you how to discover that you can express particular emotions or aspects of someone's character by first creating a contour drawing from a photo and then use the image as a framework for mosaic portrait creation. Contour drawing is a technique from drawing the outline of a subject by following its edges; tracing the edges of a face (hair, eyes, eyebrows, glasses, checks etc.) with your eyes while drawing what your eyes are seeing. Claire will teach different types of contour drawing, with students having the ability to try them. The resulting contour drawings may be zany and ridiculous. Following contours is a great way for those who are insecure about their drawing. Students will be encouraged to play, groan and giggle. There is no way to fail! The contour drawings will be completed in a 1 .5-hour Zoom session on Monday June 30 from 7 to 8:30 PM. Each participant will select a drawing and submit as directed for printing. A link to a recording of the session will be available to workshop participants who are unable to attend the June 30th session so that they are prepared for the in-person sessions. During the workshop on Saturday July 12 and Sunday July 13, participants will transfer their drawing to a substrate and then cut out to shape. Ways to portray emotions and character traits through color, texture and size of tesserae (pieces), relationships between tesserae and more will be discussed. Also explored will be the flow of the line (andamento) and when and why it may be useful. Experimentation and nontraditional use of materials will be encouraged as well as means to do so. An array of materials will be available for use, but participants are encouraged to bring their own materials to use such as smalti, glass or ceramic tiles, shells, beads, etc. Participants will be provided with a list of basic hand tools to bring with them in their registration confirmation letter.