Art from the Ashes with Elizabeth Raybee

Sunday, February 7, 2021, 3:00 pm EST

The Redwood Complex Fire burned hundreds of homes, destroyed lives and disrupted our Northern California community in so many ways.  Within days, several people approached me with stories of broken and melted remnants, leading me to offer my studio for making mosaics as a form of healing. This led to a year of seeking funding, offering free mosaic workshops for Fire Survivors, connecting with the community, planning and attending meetings, doing research, organizing a crew, and building/installing a large mosaic mural and several exhibits around our county. Sharing the challenges, rewards, and images with SAMA conference attendees will not only provide some heart-moving stories but will help prepare others to use the healing power of the Arts (mosaics in particular) to help address the stresses of disasters in their communities.  I will show images of individual mosaics created, Art from the Ashes mural, including detailed shots that reveal the mixed media techniques included, and short clips of NBC News coverage.  We will end with a short Q & A session.

Elizabeth Raybee has a degree in Painting and Printmaking and began making mosaics with broken ceramic tiles in 1978.  Always a narrative artist, making ceramic tiles, then incorporating marble, smalti and glass of all kinds helps her tell more tales – personal, political or entering the world of fantasy.  Her work has been shown in many museums and galleries from DC to California, published in several books, and her mosaic murals cover over thirty walls around the world. Raybee has taught Business for Visual Artists, drawing, batik and mosaics at San Francisco and Mendocino Community Colleges.  She’s been a visiting instructor at Chicago Mosaic School, Institute of Mosaic Arts in Oakland, Oregon College of Arts and Crafts, and led a San Diego Mosaic Marathon for SAMA.  She’s led annual mosaic workshops at Emandal Farm Art Stays (Willits, CA) and weekend “GroutCamps” in her own studio since 1996. eRaybeeMosaics.com