Cascadia Mosaic Collective is a group of mosaic artists in Oregon and Washington who met through conferences and events over many years, united by our shared interest in mosaic, as well as regional affiliation. Finding ourselves at the Pacific NW table for conference meal time, among other events, we connected professionally and personally, developing a support network and deep friendships.
In 2018, we decided to start curating our own group exhibitions. We agree on a theme, approach galleries, and coordinate all of the promotion, paperwork, delivery and pickup, etc. as a group. It is a delicate balance that works surprisingly well. The diversity in our techniques, materials and artistic approaches results in visually striking exhibitions that demonstrate the vast potential of mosaic as a contemporary art form rooted in ancient origins.
Group members have fluctuated a bit, and we usually have about 10 participating in a show. Members include: Lynn Adamo (Bend, OR), Mark Brody (Portland, OR), Todd Campbell (Seattle, WA), Joanne Daschel (Lincoln City, OR), Richard Davis (Whidbey Island, WA), Kelley Knickerbocker (Seattle, WA), Jennifer Kuhns (Elma, WA), and Karen Rycheck (Portland, OR.) The following artists have joined the group as schedules and logistics allowed: Scott Fitzwater (Portland, OR), Kate Jessup (Seattle, WA), Jo Braun (formerly of Seattle, WA) and Kate Kerrigan (Bend, OR.)
So far, we have had three different exhibitions at six different galleries and art centers. In January of 2022, we spent a week in a group residency at Centrum in Port Townsend, WA, and six of us will have a second residency in January 2023.
Northwest Mosaic Artists Alliance
Artist Biographies
Lynn Adamo
Lynn is drawn to things in decay. Peeling paint, chipping plaster, decomposing brick. Rust and the textures and patterns of age and decay on old walls. The place where the natural creeps over the built environment is where she continually finds inspiration. Her passion is creating work that is rooted in classical mosaic grammar, extrapolated to a contemporary place. When she started making art, her main focus was to create visually appealing compositions with dimensional durable materials. As her experience has deepened, Lynn sees a deeper connection between her attraction to decay and decomposition and the possibility of renewal and regrowth.
Mark Brody
Portland, OR native Mark Brody has been a working artist since graduating from Louis & Clark College with degrees in art and education. He discovered his passion for building and working with tile when he built a house in Taos, New Mexico, 20 years ago, and has been a mosaic artist for the past 18 years. Over the years, Mark has learned the importance of choosing the correct substrate adhesive and tesserae, and his finished works are located in public spaces such as libraries, hospitals and community centers. His latest project is a how-to Mosaic book featuring projects for the garden, published by Timber Press.
http://markbrodyart.com/
Todd Campbell
A writer by profession, Todd spent his adult life using words to make sense of the world until discovering that the materials and tools of a mosaic artist are also powerful a way to explore ideas and search for meaning. In nearly a decade since then, he’s come to believe that piecing together glass, stone, pottery, porcelain, and metal to create a mosaic is both a metaphor for and a reflection of how the human brain works. Or an act much like creating music—where each tessera is a single note in an improvised melody of shifting rhythms, textures, and tonal qualities with the potential to reveal new truths that words are often inadequate to convey. Since 2013, Todd’s work has appeared in exhibits across the Pacific Northwest.
https://www.toddcampbellmosaics.com/
Joanne Daschel
Based in Lincoln City, OR, Joanne creates vivid, textural mosaics with stained glass, stone, and the original mosaic glass of Venice known as smalti. This intensely colored material is hand-cut with the traditional tools of hammer and hardie, then placed directly onto the panel with no grout, for a dimensional effect. Joanne’s work is guided and inspired by the natural world of Oregon’s Pacific coast, where she lives and works. Generally I am less focused on the dramatic seascapes, instead looking closely at overlooked landscapes and quiet botanical vignettes. Her hope is to reconnect the viewer with nature: its lessons, inspiration and consolations.
Richard Davis
After earning a degree in sculpture from Bard College, Richard spent many years practicing the art of fine cuisine in the restaurant business. In 1998, he volunteered to help install mosaics on the front of the Craft Center Building in Nelson, New Zealand, and he’s been making mosaics ever since. A dedicated traveler, Richard’s work is influenced by the numerous mosaic styles he has seen in sojourns across Europe, North Africa, Asia, and beyond. Many of his pieces are inspired by and incorporate found or recycled objects and tiles carted back in suitcases from faraway lands. Since 2016, Richard’s work has appeared in exhibits in countries around the world, including Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, France, and the United States.
http://www.richarddavismosaics.com
Scott Fitzwater
Scott has been creating mosaics since retiring from a career as a software engineer in 2008. I work mostly in slate sourced from salvaged roofing tile and harvested from quarries in California. He’s drawn to slate because he can cut and break it into thicknesses and lengths that allow me to fully explore organic, abstract, and geometric designs; convey the expressive qualities of movement and mood of the line; and experiment with mosaic sculptural composition. Scott draws creative inspiration from the limited color palette of slate. Largely self-taught, Scott has exhibited in North America and Europe and has won several awards.
https://www.fitzwatermosaic.net/
Kelley Knickerbocker
Seattle’s Kelley Knickerbocker has been a fulltime artist since 2006, when she founded Rivenworks Mosaics and began designing, fabricating, and installing mosaic artwork for public, commercial, residential, and gallery environments. Her ruggedly dimensional mosaic artworks are a textural distillation of my fascination with the contrast, material properties, and technical challenges of mosaic construction. Kelley’s work is widely collected and regularly exhibited in the United States and abroad. She also travel the world to speak, collaborate, participate in residencies and symposia, and teach in-depth workshops on mosaic style and technique. In 2015, she received the annual Innovation in Contemporary Mosaic award from the American Society of Mosaic Artists.
Jennifer Kuhns
A professional artist for nearly three decades, Jennifer has been working in mosaic since 2001. Using primarily stained glass, her work ranges from strikingly dimensional figurative and landscape imagery to decorative, stylized installations. Her public art and community projects reflect her strong commitment to environmental sustainability and social justice, and draw on her unusual ability to engage, educate, and create community with all ages and socio-economic groups. Jennifer also creates custom mosaic floors and murals for corporate and private clients across North America. My work has been featured in exhibitions and galleries throughout the country.
Karen Rycheck
Like many artists, Karen discovered her passion for art at a very young age, when clay and drawing classes at the local art association led to a formal education in the arts that included a scholarship to the University of Kansas and a BFA in sculpture from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. After graduating, she worked as a mosaic artist in St. Louis and was part of a team that mosaicked thousands of square feet of the ten-story Brown Shoe Company factory. Since moving to Oregon in 2004, Karen has worked on mosaic installations for the Oregon Zoo in Portland, and created pubic mosaics for the city of Ashland and in Grants Pass, McMinnville, Medford, and Talent.
Teaching
Lynn Adamo has been leading mosaic workshops in Hillsboro, Oregon, through the Walters Cultural Arts Center, Sequoia Gallery + Studios, and in her studio since 2003.
Mark Brody has been teaching in schools and art centers for the past 12 years in Portland, Oregon. He has a fine arts degree in sculpture and a certificate in teaching.
Joanne Daschel teaches glass mosaic at the beginning and intermediate levels at the Lincoln City Cultural Center, the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, and Oregon Coast Community College
Kelley Knickerbocker has a full catalog of half-day to multi-day style/technique workshops focused on abstract mosaic design and construction for students at all experience levels.
Jennifer Kuhns teaches advanced workshops for mosaic artists in the Pacific Northwest region and beyond.
