John (Solly) Sollinger – Name New Featured Artist

Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery is very pleased to announce that John (Solly) Sollinger has been named as the Gallery’s new featured artist and he will now be promoted by the gallery for the next 2 weeks in the gallery’s Artist Showcase.

Solly is a glass mosaic artist based in Ashland, Oregon.  He also teaches mosaics in several workshops every year.  He was selected as 1 of the top twelve finalists of the gallery’s recent Solo Art Exhibition Series #6. The placement in this competition qualified his art to be showcased in this feature.  Below are his Artist Biography and Artist Statement that was submitted to this competition.

Artist Biography:

Solly earned a BS in Forestry in 1977, a PhD in Genetics, 1995, and was awarded two post-doctoral fellowships to study plant genetics. Since then he has been a biology professor whose passion for investigating the regulation of patterns in nature has spilled over into a passion for mosaicking those patterns.

Solly finds inspiration from impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, especially those by Monet and van Gogh. Rendering one of Vincent’s paintings into a glass mosaic in 2009 marked the beginning of Solly’s pursuit of mosaic art in earnest. Light effects and texture reflect the artists’ influence on Sollys work. Thus far, Solly’s mosaic reflect intimate and distant landscapes, largely devoid of the human touch, and usually relate to fire and water.

He creates illusions of space with colored pieces, relying on the human tendency to perceive meaningful patterns from chaotically laid glass chunks or bits.

Solly devised his own methods, including a double reverse technique, through trial-and-error — and perseverance. His technique is “fluid” in the sense that he does not adhere the pieces in all are in place. This allows him to play with possibilities (e.g., color combinations, transparency and type of cut).

Artist Statement:

“To practice my unconventional methods, I persist in situations wrought with uncertainty when working on a mosaic that takes from weeks to months to assemble — before any adhesive is used. Disasters await, but the cat died, and I make sure to roll up my sleeves, which would, otherwise, clear paths of glass bits in a work in progress.”

“I strive to master this technique for glass mosaics through trial and error, always learning (and sometimes re-learning!).”  Solly’s Website: http://roguemosaics.com