(Artwork above by Joanie Callen)

Joanie Callen takes you on a magical mystery tour through an explosion of color and light. As whimsical creatures come to life, experience an expansion of the fantasy in your mind. Contemplate the colors and reflections from stained glass windows in cathedrals in Europe. See vibrant colorful creatures happily dancing in a beautiful garden. This is the realm of excitement and enchantment this mosaic artist hopes to transport you into.

Vibrant glass, colored mirror, dichroic glass, imported beads and many sparkly objects are seemingly thrown up in the air and kissed by a rainbow only to land happily on a mirror frame or a playful beast to forever brighten your home and life.

Joanie Callen is a mosaic artist living in Bend. Her love of color, especially strong saturated colors dominate her work.

Fascinated with the mosaic art form, Joanie studied classical mosaics in Ravenna, Italy. The technique learned was the ancient Byzantine method of setting tesserae (pieces of glass) directly into a mortar bed. This Italian experience inspired her to translate the ancient technique into a modern interpretation.

Joanie’s current focus is to include customizing fused glass shapes and a multitude of complicated beading to accentuate her creatures.

Joanie is always on the lookout for interesting forms and creatures to apply a multitude of objects in order to create a magical mosaic art sculpture. She does not really start out with a plan, but says that the creatures seem to create themselves as she progresses with their development. One minute they are plain and lifeless and after adding an eye, an eyebrow, a beaded face, or a curly tail all of a sudden they are on their way to becoming a personality to be reckoned with.