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Arts & Entertainment

Workhouse Artist of the Week: Andy Mays

Find her work in the Glasshouse, building 7, at the Lorton Workhouse for the Arts

Andy Mays claims to have no sense of direction. But as a well traveled grandmother-to-be, Andy’s European adventures seem to have led her to find her passion: creating mosaic art.

“In 2007, Gene Sterud (local mosaic artist and retired archeologist) had an open house at the Workhouse in 2007,” recalled Andy. “There he had a demonstration of mosaics and historic reproductions—and since we travel internationally now, I just admire the art of it—especially the mosaics and all the beautiful cathedrals around the world. He did these gorgeous historic reproductions of all the art that I enjoyed. It just hit home. So now mosaic is my medium.”

Growing up in Michigan City, Indiana, and then Dayton, VA in the Shenadoah Valley as a teen, Andy’s family was bursting with creativity. Her mother quilted and her father was what she calls “the handyman type”, always building something. “He actually built my furniture when I moved out of the house,” said Andy.

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Although she learned to knit, crochet and embroider, Andy was fascinated by science and the human body. She received her degree in secondary education and general science from James Madison University. “I always wanted to go into the medical field, but I found out it would take too long in school,” she laughed. “I taught middle school science for five years, but I still love medicine and anything to do with health.”

It wasn’t until she married her husband Jim and began raising their three children as a full-time homemaker did she start taking classes in the arts. “I just wanted to get out of the house and make Christmas presents,” said Andy. “I took watercolor and drawing classes, in between time being a mom.”

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After meeting Sterud in 2007, Andy became intrigued with learning how to work with mosaic. “He had all these gorgeous mosaics,” said Andy. “I admired this one piece he had. It was this great peacock and it was full of color and life. I fell in love with it and we eventually bought it.

“I found out that he was teaching classes at the Art League in Alexandria. Every week I would go in for classes—I totally loved it and I made beautiful mosaics with his help. I took probably five or six classes with him. When the Workhouse Glasshouse opened, he became a teacher and I followed him. I met my studio mates in his mosaic class.”

Andy’s current studio mates, Sandi Martina, Jeri Ocherson and SueEllen Black volunteered at the Workhouse with her before deciding to share space at the Glasshouse. “What I like about having a studio is that we help each other with projects,” said Andy. “If we have any questions, we just ask the artists here. If we want to learn or incorporate, say, fused glass with mosaic, we just go to the fused glass artists. We can meet other artists and brainstorm together. Everyone’s so helpful and they always share. They are very giving people.”

Andy spends about three days a week her the Glasshouse studio. Her mosaic work is displayed in the gallery along alongside fused glass, hand blown glass and stained glass artwork. Her most notable work, a stained glass mosaic reproduction of “Empress Theodora”, (originally created in smalti mosaic at the Basilica San Vitale, Revenna, Italy around 548 A.D.), glimmers in the late afternoon sun.

“All this would be real gold,” said Andy as she slid her fingers over the clear glass. “So I decided to create it in stained glass. The back of the clear glass was painted gold, along with the board it’s adhered to, so the gold shines right through. She was really fun to do.”

Andy’s work in progress is another reproduction of a portion of the Basilica’s mosaics, inspired by a recent trip to Revenna. “I knew I wanted to work on these doves,” she said. “We traveled to Revenna specifically to find them, but we couldn’t. The place was so full of mosaic. It’s everywhere. So we sat there with our binoculars and just searched through everything. We finally found the doves and that was it. I knew I had to do it.”

Despite the impending birth of her first grandchild, Andy says she will keep traveling and gathering inspiration for future works. “Who knows what tomorrow will bring,” said Andy. “I love traveling internationally. I do all the planning and my husband guides me around since I have no sense of direction.”

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