Stratoz returned from an 8 day silent retreat at the Wernersville Jesuit Spiritual Center and I was very happy to see him! Wernersville has a special place in my heart, as it was there, at a retreat on spirituality and collage, that I first saw a mosaic “in person” and a spectacular one made with Italian gold smalti, and designed by Hildreth Meiere.
Meiere(1890-1961) was an art deco muralist and mosaicist, and had many commissions for public art, and in 1956 was the first woman to win the Fine Arts Medal from the American Institute of Architects.
Through my Nutmeg Designs etsy shop, a relative of HM contacted me, because I mentioned she was a favorite. It was a thrill when he bought one of my mosaic picture frames for a vintage photo of Hildreth Meiere.
The frame was one of the first projects I did with gold smalti, in this case red gold in the center and the corners. Orsoni Smalti Factory has discontinued the red smalti in the U.S. which set me pining, because it is such an intense glowing red.
Stratoz always comes back refreshed from his retreats. I won’t be signing up for a silent retreat anytime soon, but I would go back to Wernersville to sit in the chapel and soak in the mosaics.
Related Post:
Pilgrimage to Walls Speak: The Narrative Art of Hildreth Meiere
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