THE STUDIO
UPCYCLE
STORIES TOLD IN STONE A Pennsylvania Mosaic Artist Shares Her Creative Process BY ELLEN KANZINGER
THE “FORAGER MOSAICIST.” CURATOR
of the Ruins Project. Contemporary artist and teacher. Rachel Sager embraces a number of titles through the work she creates in her Pennsylvania studio. Blending classical techniques and intuitive style with a penchant for found objects, her pieces speak to ideas of place. “Translation: I dig stuff from the ground and put it back together in very particular ways,” she said. Sager’s journey with mosaics started in 1995 when she answered an ad to work in a small mosaic studio outside of New York City. “My life has never been the same,” she said. In two and a half decades, she has fine-tuned her process while always on the lookout for new ways of approaching an ancient art. Whether it’s upcycling the parts of an old printer into a stunning display or
mentoring a new generation of mosaic artists, Sager’s work is part of the narrative we are writing about who we are and where we come from. “Whether by creating beauty or helping someone see outside of their four walls, artists work with the gifts of illumination,” Sager said. “We don’t necessarily follow the rules that other people do, and this can help us to shake things up. I would go so far as to say, ‘without art, what is the point?’”
fragments of varying shapes and sizes to then be pieced back together again in a new form. “Breaking up stone is a sacred act,” she said. “Cleaving something that has been sealed up for millions of years. Using a simple stone hammer to create tesserae never gets old. It engages all the senses.” Sager doesn’t just work in stone. She finds materials for her pieces everywhere, from the banks of the Youghiogheny River to bespoke glass factories in Venice. “I am an equal opportunity material hound,” she said. Whether it’s using glass and ceramic or vintage spoons and factory nuts, the array of different textures and finishes invite the viewer to study the contrasts more closely.
The Technique
There’s a word in the world of mosaics— andamento—which refers to the flow and movement of the pieces, a technique at the very heart of the medium. “My process is about the language of mosaic, how each piece fits next to its neighboring piece and the pathways that they then travel together,” Sager said. When starting a piece, she turns to a handful of people she trusts to share thoughts as ideas take shape. Over the years, her dreams have also played an important role in her creative process. From the very beginning, the materials she chooses to work with play a starring role in the work. “Working from scratch is what keeps me in love with the medium,” Sager said. Using a variety of hammers and other tools, Sager fashions
Tour Guide and Instructor
TOP: "THE TWO BEARS: LAND AND TUNDRA" BY RACHEL SAGER. BOTTOM: SAGER'S STUDIO RIGHT O F F T H E G R E AT A L L E G H E N Y P A S S A G E . P H O T O S COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
For Sager, opening her studio in southwestern Pennsylvania was a way of coming back home. “I am very connected to the land onto which I was born,” she said. Located on the Great Allegheny Passage near mile marker 104 and the banks of the Youghiogheny River, the studio has become a popular spot among cyclists and visitors looking to soak up part of the local history. On the same property sit the ruins of a coal mine operation once run by
AU G U ST- S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 | B LU E R I D G E O U T D O O R S . C O M
13
