Mosaic Art by Mary Engel

We have a soft spot for folk art, which may be why we responded so well to the work of Mary Engel. Mary will be included in an upcoming book by Garth Johnson of ExtremeCraft.com, which will feature 1,000 ideas for Creative Reuse, we seriously can't wait for this book. In the meantime, we're making due with perusing ExtremeCraft in hopes for a taste of what will be in the book. Mary Engel is definitely one of our favorites so far.

Mary Engel is an Athens, Georgia based artists who uses little porcelain figurines to make amazing mosaic sculptures most of which are inspired by her two dogs and the tradition of African grave markers and old Southern "Memory Jars". (We actually have our own DIY art project inspired by Memory Jars that we hope to share soon!)

For more fabulous crafts, check out ExtremeCraft.

Comments (18)

I think I would have noticed this article if it were here since Saturday, instead of inserted early Tuesday on page 5/6.

Uh... I can sort of appreciate what's going on here. A ceramic dog is a ceramic dog, even if it's made of other ceramic dogs. I can't even tell you what a nightmare chill/sweat I get when I imagine being covered with birds, but maybe that's just me.

posted by K T G on February 3rd 2009 at 6:49am
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I 'd love to buy a piece by Judy Onofrio. Check out her site.

posted by Kate (NC) on February 3rd 2009 at 10:03am
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dont know why, but it creeps me out.

posted by Oneformybaby on February 3rd 2009 at 2:05pm
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Creeps me out, too. Looks like a collection of old chewing gum scraped off the bottom of school desks.

posted by TheGoodBiGirl on February 3rd 2009 at 2:12pm
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I like it.

posted by tenderleaf on February 3rd 2009 at 2:16pm
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It looks like some sort of skin disease, especially that first one. Ewwww, I just can't appreciate it.

posted by tarah on February 3rd 2009 at 2:26pm
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I've seen these in person, and they are quite cool.

posted by patrick (the other one) on February 3rd 2009 at 2:57pm
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It does sort of make my skin crawl for some reason.

posted by Abby-Sue on February 3rd 2009 at 3:10pm
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I love it for some reason - but that is what makes art, art!

posted by Haunted_Studio on February 3rd 2009 at 3:20pm
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I agree with Abby-Sue... makes me alt left.

posted by Fuzzyummy on February 3rd 2009 at 3:25pm
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Oneformybaby--you beat me to it..it creeps me out too.

posted by animalhouze on February 3rd 2009 at 3:25pm
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It reminds me of ticky tacky art cars I see all over Santa Cruz with Kewpie doll figures glued onto them.

posted by Hoonuit on February 3rd 2009 at 4:23pm
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i love creepy.

posted by Seaside on February 3rd 2009 at 4:49pm
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I want to like it but, I just ate and it's hard to keep it down when I look at the first one. It reminds me of "Pizza the Hut" from Spaceballs. I'm sorry but, I couldn't keep it to myself.

posted by modernguy on February 3rd 2009 at 5:02pm
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Its horrible.

posted by silversurfer on February 4th 2009 at 9:11am
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Oops, I've just broken my new year resolution to only make positive comments or else shut up.

posted by silversurfer on February 4th 2009 at 9:12am
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I like weird art and I do mosaic's, but not this.

posted by colleen2009 on February 4th 2009 at 9:47am
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Sounds like a good plan silversurfer, I'm going to try that as well.

posted by modernguy on February 4th 2009 at 3:19pm
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