DULUTH ARTIST WINS PRESTIGIOUS “BEST IN SHOW”
MODESTO LANZONE AWARD

San Francisco, California

Two weeks before the deadline, the fine art mosaic Jennifer Tipton had been working on for more than six months was still unfinished. She was unsure about competing, and “the amount of work left was discouraging.” There were glass and tiles to be cut and applied and professional photographs to be shot.

The idea for her unique project started with her own fingerprint. The 41” x 28” project, entitled “Identity,” is a dramatic oversized representation of the imprint of her left index finger made from dichroic glass and unglazed ceramic tile.

“When conceiving the design, materials were my main concern,“ says Jennifer Tipton who began her journey as a mosaic artist three years ago. “I wanted the fingerprint to have texture and to ‘pop’ off the board—a very specific effect I knew would only be accomplished with dichroic glass,” a dramatic color-changing material produced by vacuum depositing multiple thin layers of exotic material onto a textured glass substrate. Unique items like this are part of what drew her to mosaics, “the endless materials and possibilities within the medium.”

Though dichroic glass presents a particularly difficult challenge to cut and shape, Jennifer worked intently, even into the early morning hours, to complete her unique project, have it photographed, and send it to be juried across the country in San Francisco.

The Museo ItaloAmericano Museum in San Francisco, California received hundred of entries from mosaic artists around the world into their juried exhibition of international mosaic artists: “Opus Veritas - Fragments of Truth.” The exhibit, paying homage to an art form that originated in Italy an has been interpreted the world over, showcases some of the finest and most innovative mosaic work being done by U.S. and international mosaic artists.

Hundreds of submissions were carefully reviewed by the exhibition jurors: Lynne Baer, art consultant to public and private entities; Sheila Menzies, artist, writer, co-founder of Tile Heritage Foundation; and Julie Benbow, the Museo’s Executive Director and Acting Curator.

The phone rang in early December when Jennifer received the new from Ms. Benbow to inform her that her entry was not only accepted by the jury but was selected as the Best in Show among the 70 pieces chosen from artists in six countries.

“I was literally speechless,” Jennifer remembers at hearing the news of her award. “I said so little during our phone conversation, I felt compelled to e-mail her the next day to let her know how really excited I was.”

The award, named after the late Modesto Lanzone, is given to an emerging artist. Through the years, Modesto Lanzone bought and showed the work of emerging artists, always delighting in new discoveries. “Planting seeds,” he called it, in an artist’s future and therefore the future of art. Lanzone once said, “When I look at art, I see the artist”—something that could not be more true than of Jennifer’s own fingerprint.

Jennifer was presented her award in San Francisco at the opening of the exhibit held in conjunction with the annual conference of the Society of American Mosaic Artists. The award was presented by renowned Venetian artist Lucio Orsoni, a fourth-generation member of the Orsoni dynasty--manufacturers of mosaic materials since 1889.

“This mosaic,” Orsoni commented when presenting Jennifer her award, “is the best I’ve seen in five years.”

It was a compliment worth as much to Jennifer as the award itself.

“Mr. Orson's style has greatly influenced my own minimalist preferences, and I have great respect for his opinion,” says Jennifer. “I was honored, to say the least.”

Jennifer’s goal as a mosaicist is to create a body of work that is accepted in the art world. “In my experience,” Jennifer explains, “mosaics are often the black sheep of fine art. My desire is for people to expand their idea of what a mosaic can be--to push beyond the assumption that this medium is strictly for architectural applications or crafts.”

Jennifer Tipton has lived in Duluth, Georgia since 1998. She graduated from the University of Alabama where she studied Art History. More of her work can be viewed at www.jennifertipton.com.

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