You know you have a true friend when they are willing to show up downtown at 8:30am on a Monday morning to take on the non-glamorous task of scrubbing trash cans to prepare them for mosaic! We had our brushes at the ready!

And got to work!

We were still smiling afterward! A good thing.

And the trash cans look revived and ready for a little mosaic love…

We celebrated with treats at New Morning Bakery afterwards!  THANK YOU to Sue, Karen, Sarah and Cynthia. Deepest gratitude to Barbara Hanley and Todd & Karen Thompson who also adopted a trash can for cleaning prior to today’s event.

You are each ROCK STARS!!!

Whew! A rainy morning and we still pulled out completion of the last six panels in just over 4 hours! This city rocks it!!!

We even had our first canine participant…Sophie…a 2+ month old Boston terrier puppy!

And the usual fanfare of Corvallis Farmers Market glory!!!

Gratitude for my family who always knocks it out of the ballpark with their love and support!

Very blessed to live and work in such a phenomenal community. Celebrating vibrant downtown neighborhoods!

Laticrete International has graciously donated all of the 254 Platinum adhesive and Spectralock grout for the Mosaic Collaborations Project! My heart overflows with gratitude for their generosity and kindness! THANK YOU LATICRETE!!!

You can purchase their products locally at Mid Valley Tile on Sycamore!

We held our final Nip & Sip volunteer event here at The House of Y Not on April 27th and my apologies that my camera did not make an appearance! On the 28th, a group of CHS students arrived to earn some hours for their National Honor Society requirements. Such a productive weekend, I can’t thank everyone enough!!!

The panels for our last community participation event are all prepped and ready to roll!  We hope you’ll join Tribe Rhoades at the Corvallis Farmer’s Market on Saturday, May 18th from 9am – 1pm!

Honestly, time to get these babies installed! We need the room!

Oh. My. Goodness. It’s always a challenge to summarize!

The Hotel Murano was spectacular!  A boutique hotel featuring the work of a different glass artist on every floor!

My emphasis this year was to serve as one of the two lead assistants for Mark Brody and Lynn Adamo who were the co-designers of the Mosaic Marathon project! 3 days setting tesserae, 2 days grouting, 500+ conference attendees = 3 panels now hanging at the Boys & Girls Club of Puget Sound!

Mark and Lynn, the dynamic duo! In front of Chihuly glass at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma!

The Mosaic Art Salon is always exciting. Conference attendees create small works of art for sale. Always fun to see new techniques, what’s current and eye catching. I was so thrilled. I won the bid for Michael Kruzich’s peacock!  Also discovered that Michael is my long lost brother from Iowa!

There was so much to see this year! Mosaic Art International always features innovative work from artists all over the world!

Jim Bachor

Ali Mirsky

I also attended an opening reception for a tile exhibit, a fantastic show of NW regional mosaic art that was happening at the Tacoma Library and yet another site hosted the Transpositions show! In depth summaries and photos from each show can be found on my Facebook page!

John Sollinger

Jennifer Kuhns

Vendor showcase was energizing. The lectures were good. A closing night ball with live auction. Always a new experience each and every year! 2014 location will be Houston, TX!

Phenomenal afternoon with the residents of Community Outreach. One had prior experience working on a mosaic mural at the coast and another recalled stained glass projects. A few were having less than stellar days and appreciated the diversion of a little therapeutic art.

Two more panels ready for installation!

Willamette Valley Glass Guild held their monthly meeting with us in March. Glorious to hear all about their latest projects and techniques. They, too, enjoyed contributing to the mosaics for downtown!

Residents of Timberhill Place enjoyed adding tesserae to the mosaics in early March!

They look forward to a bus tour through downtown to see them installed later this summer!

18 members of the Corvallis Fiber Arts Guild held their March meeting at The House of Y Not. They enjoyed the tour and also shared their talents on the Mosaic Collaborations Project.

Nip & Sip Volunteers continued to work on materials prep and community staging for the MCP throughout the Winter and on into Spring…