ARTIST STATEMENT
Patty
I LOVE COLOR... (I have a bright blue front door). The joy that color brings, combined with a desire to put “things” in order, resulted in my forever friendship with mosaics. I grabbed onto this art medium like a life preserver in the spring of 2003. That was when my father, Jim, went into the final stages of prostate cancer. Since my parents lived in a rural part of California (with limited medical services), we had them temporarily move in to our home to be close to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
Jim was a happy person; imaginative, playful, joyful. The hardest part of facing the end of his life, was watching him give up on everything he enjoyed; that which gave his life meaning. I watched as he gave in to his fate and was getting ready, to get ready, to die. This was not the man I knew – he seemed empty.
Throughout Jim’s life, he had always created. He dabbled in woodcarving, stained glass, painting, and writing. I, on the other hand, had never even attempted to draw and had no desire to learn. (BTW I also have no desire to cook – but that’s another story). Jim needed “something” – he needed his hands, and mind, busy - he needed a reason to connect with the life happening around him.
I asked him to help me make some mosaics for our garden and THAT was exactly the nudge he needed. His eyes lit up with a very familiar twinkle and he came out of his downward spiral. We couldn’t hold him back; couldn’t get him to rest, couldn’t flip the off switch - he was happily and completely obsessed with mosaics! We set up a table in our sunroom (which is now my studio) and we proceeded to buy the wrong tools, the wrong glue, and broke china plates and ceramic tiles with a wild abandon. We did a few stepping-stones, but quickly moved on to ugly turtles, and an even uglier alligator (don’t ask - I’m still not sure what’s holding these pieces together besides moss.) After a few intense weeks of gluing everything to anything, we stopped to do a little research (what a radical idea). I bought the right glass tiles, the right glue, the right tools, and a couple of good instruction books. We were armed and dangerous... Jim filled every waking moment mosaicing and the glass shards were flying!
I worked by Jim’s side each evening. As I sat down and picked up my nippers, I could feel all of the days tension wash away. Creating mosaics was feeding an empty place in both of our souls. I was discovering a part of me that I never knew existed and Jim was my guide. I look back on that time and wonder if this was his intent – to ignite this hidden talent. I wonder if he was giving me the gift that I thought I was giving to him.
Jim went home to die in the fall of 2003, but not without his mosaic supplies. He worked until the week he passed away and made a sun – a sun that lives on our rock wall just outside my studio. Thanks, Jim, you know that I’m spaffeling*.
*Spaffeling – a word made up by my father to describe a person at their happiest.. A moment when a face lights up with a glow that says, “life can’t get ANY better than this”!
Bio:
Patty Franklin lives and works in Woodinville, Washington. Galleries, collectors, interior designers, and corporate curators recognize her talent in sculptures and figurative mosaic. She is classically trained and has worked under the guidance of; Maestro Enzo Aiello (Rome, Italy), Maestro Giulio Menossi (Udine, Italy) and Pamela Irving (Melbourne, Australia). The Cole Gallery in Edmonds, WA and Bassetti’s Crooked Arbor Gardens & Gallery in Woodinville, WA represent Patty's artwork. She has exhibited at: Art Basel at The Atelier in Miami, FL ~ Cole Gallery in Edmonds, WA ~ Fraker/Scott Gallery in Seattle, WA ~ Seattle Design Center/EAFA Gallery in Seattle, WA ~ Front Street Gallery in Issaquah, WA ~ Museum & Arts Center, Sequim, WA & the Hollywood Wine District Art Walk, Woodinville, WA