#yycLCL May 2017

Photo by Michelena Bamford
#yycLCL May 2017 | Photo: Michelena Bamford

#yycLCL May 2017

This fun, collaborative, and messy photo is an example of just one of the ways the mosaic medium gifts me in living a creative life. When my own children started school I wanted a creative, flexible job that worked with their schedules and so I designed a curriculum and process to share this incredible, ancient, colourful, art form in schools. Fifteen years later, I’m thrilled with all of the collaborative mosaic murals and workshops I have had the honour of making with school boards and communities throughout the city.

This particular one was made at The Calgary Girls School as a grade nine legacy project, and the imagery and work was all done collaboratively and with special intention. The students shared this experience as part of their grad celebration: “Though all the individual pieces have their own uniqueness and individual identity, their greatness is increased by the fact that they are contributing to a larger picture. Just like the little pieces we assembled, we too work as a team.”

There are many more reasons why I love this medium but this beautiful, working metaphor of mosaics, truly makes my heart full. I get to do such meaningful work with many diverse and beautiful people in a medium that everyone can participate in and that will last indefinitely—a true legacy of people, meaning, and moments captured in art!

Michelena Bamford is the founder and director of Wolf Willow Studio, a community hub in Spruce Cliff that holds space for her sustainable nature decor business called Rocky Mountain Wreaths, her mosaic practice and workshops, as well as many other cultural events and offerings for Calgary.

She loves travelling to mosaic destinations and workshops so that she can expand and grow the Canadian mosaic movement. Michelena is thrilled to recently have been chosen to show her own personal fine art mosaics in the Ruberto Ostberg Gallery show Connections, open until July 8, 2017. 

Find out more at wolfwillowstudio.ca, follow Wolf Willow Studio on Instagram and Facebook, and follow Michelena’s personal accounts on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.


Show us how you live a creative life by tagging your Instagram snapshots with #yycLCL, and we may feature your image next month.