Northshore Magazine

December 2014

Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.

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252 Pam Stratton Pam Stratton took a dose of her own medicine, so to speak, when she decided to channel her mind and body into something completely new. Certifie in acupuncture and Chinese herbal medi- cine, Stratton had been healing people on Cape Ann since 1994. "Working with people every day ex- poses me to the ephemeral nature of life," she says. "I'm aware of the importance of maintaining balance, and I find it in the enduring quality of mosaic. It has that longevity to it. It's a deeply focusing activ- ity like meditation." Eight years ago, Stratton took up the hobby of creating mosaic art pieces. Many include clusters of stone and glass and are of varying shapes with gradations of colors melding into one another. She often uses brightly colored smalti (glass) from Italy and Mexico. Her Inner Canyon is such a piece. Composed of marble, Italian and Mexican smalti tiles, aragonite, and iron pyrite, it is striking, with colors ranging from bright reds to dark browns. It could depict a canyon, as it is titled, but for some it evokes the image of a woman's body in profile, perhaps dancing the Flamenco. Among her mosaics Stratton has 6˝ x 6˝ smalti sunfl wers; transparent smalti and marble tables; a musician's lanky silhouette wailing on a clarinet with a brick wall as a backdrop; a gorgeous pink and white mosaic of delicate, raised fl wers on similarly colored marble and granite tiles, and many more. Stratton, president of Cape Ann Artisans, often employs a mosaic lime technique she learned while studying in Italy. She concocts the mixture and then surrounds the central mosaic theme with it. It is something not many artists are do- ing yet in this country. Her own "pond mosaic" is a showpiece in her front yard next to her garden. Dur- ing the annual Cape Ann Artisan Tours, it's not unusual to have 150 people stopping by to see it. She has depicted the making of the mosaic on her website. There are im- ages of her and occasionally an assistant measuring the space, pouring cement, sketching in the design, laying in slate slabs, and filling in the space with varying sized pebbles and jagged stones. The fina result is an eye-popping work of art. Her prices vary with smaller pieces under $100 and larger pieces, such as a 14˝ x 15˝ square table priced at $400. Some commissions cost several thousand dol- lars. pamstrattonmosaics.com Pam Stratton uses a mosaic lime technique she learned in Italy. Photographs by Sarah Phillips

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