BirchBarkMosaics

Birch Bark Mosaics: why that name?

The best way I can describe the artwork (or possibly artplay) is with those three words. Long before this website, Birch Bark Mosaics was what I called my “art therapy” technique.

Birch Bark is the media — the paint I use on a canvas or a journal cover to create abstract landscapes or geometric patterns — and Mosaics references how small pieces coalesce to form a fuller picture, harkening back to Roman times when shards of glass and ceramics were arranged for form a scene.

Sometimes it is a mood I am creating rather than a picture, particularly when I add dashes of birch bark to repurposed glass items like jars, water bottles, pendants or magnets. No matter the background which birch bark graces, the natural beauty enhances the whole item, but it’s hard to say exactly why. And harder to say why I feel compelled to “birch bark” those things. (Yeah, that’s right, it’s a verb too.)

Perfectly imperfect pieces.