Today we’d like to introduce you to Beverly Webb.
Hi Beverly, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
As a child of the sixties, art has always been important in my life. After dabbling with different media in school, my first serious experience with creating art was learning to produce ceramics. In my early twenties I studied pottery making at the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts (now The Center For Creative Studies). My love of wheel throwing continued through the early eighties but ultimately, after having three children, working, and attending college part time, my creative side got lost in life’s shuffle.
My engagement in art making was rekindled about twenty years ago after trip to New York City. My brother there took me on an urban safari to the East Village and introduced me to the incredible mosaic work of Jim Power. Known as “The Mosaic Man”, Jim, an often homeless ‘Nam vet, spent years transforming the streets of his neighborhood. Using broken china, found objects, and almost anything else he found interesting, he has created beautiful mosaic art on the lampposts and sidewalks of his beloved corner of the city.
The moment I encountered Jim Power’s mosaic work in NYC I was IN LOVE! As soon as I got back home I set out in search of china to break.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
For me, being an artist is filled with challenges. The hunt for supplies, dishes to smash, and frames to fill, keeps me on constant rounds to area thrift stores and junk shops. And maintaining a home studio as I do, it’s a constant struggle to keep the china shards out of the butter dish.
Managing my class schedule is filled with the more business like tasks of advertising and maintaining relationships with venues for both sales and workshops and the more physical challenges of carting around a jeep full of supplies to set up for each class.
I advertise my workshops as beginner friendly, and I try hard to make it a fun, interactive experience. My workshops run about 3 hours long and are preceded by hours of prepping all of the supplies that my students will need to select, trim, puzzle together, glue, grout, and clean their finished pieces efficiently.
Summer is easy, as the finished pieces can go outside to dry on a sunny day. Winter can a bit more challenging. Drying time! Drying time is a challenge!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Since being inspired by the work of mosaic master Jim Power, I have spent the last 15 years developing my own brand of ”bits and pieces” mosaic art creating framed and stand alone pieces, everything from fish to cakes, to totems and birds, to ornaments and charms. My work, which I vend under the moniker “Eye Candy Mosaics and Mixed Media Art” is now available in nearly a dozen shops in the Detroit area.
Also, I work hard at developing the many area workshops I lead where I share my art and craft with others.
More recently, my mosaic making has led me to re-engage with painting which, for me, has become a more personal, expressive pursuit. Inspired by nature, my painting allows me to explore line and form in a way beyond what mosaic allows and affords me further opportunities to assert my identity not just as a craftsperson but as an artist. My mosaics and my painting are often in conversation with one another as you can see in my painting “Bulbs”.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
I’ve learned that there aren’t too many rules for making art, except for the rules I make for my self.
I’ve learned that I’m really the only person who needs to love my finished work. This has become especially true with painting, which I have more recently dived into.
I’ve learned to to maintain more self discipline than comes naturally to me, especially when it comes to filling orders.
I’ve learned that the best can be the enemy of the good and to enjoy every day I get to make art, especially those sunny days when I can spread all of my junk on a table in the backyard and not worry about the butter dish.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eyecandymosaics48/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bweyecandy
