From her home studio, Colorado mosaic artist captures the beauty of Summit County
KEYSTONE, Colo. — A safe space to work and create is vital for artists. For Abbe Gold, a mosaic artist, that space is a studio designed by her husband. The studio was completed in December 2019, just a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Gold’s home studio sits in a Summit County neighborhood where Dillon blends into Keystone, with wall-to-wall mountain views. From the home, you can see trails for bicyclists and walkers, as well as a lake for fishing, paddle boards and boats. Denver is an hour to the east.
Walking into Gold’s workspace, moving clockwise through the room, her studio reflects the beginning, middle and end of her creative process. At first it was hard to miss her late father’s elegant wooden glass shelves that took up the whole west wall. Once filled with law books, the gallery is now occupied with Gold’s seemingly endless number of plastic gelato containers holding different stones, ceramics, glass and other materials used to create her art.
For centuries, artists have combined pieces of stone, glass and ceramic to create mosaic art. The earliest known mosaic art dates back to the 3rd millennium B.C. in Mesopotamia. The technique was further refined by ancient Greeks and Romans. Independently from the Greeks and Romans, Pre-Columbian cultures in Mesoamerica created mosaics as well.
Now, centuries later, Gold explains, in simple terms, why she creates the ancient art: “It's important to surround ourselves with art because I think it makes us feel good.”
Gold’s work ranges in size. When Rocky Mountain PBS visited her studio, she was creating a mosaic of potted flowers within a golden frame that was about three inches by three inches. Her subject matter is often flora and fauna, a lot of which she can see from her studio.
The “wall of inspiration” is a standout in Gold’s studio; the entire wall is an exhibit of family photos, art, magnets and toys. Her large, wooden desk faces east. Through expansive windows, she can see the mountains and the Snake River arm that runs into the Dillon Reservoir.
While her studio gives her constant inspiration, creating art has always been a part of Gold's life.
Related Story
“Art has really given me an outlet to express myself; it just makes me happy, you know, having an idea in my head and after many hours … seeing the piece in front of me,” she explained. “It’s just very rewarding."
Gold was first riveted by mosaics 20 years ago.
“I had never done mosaic art, but I had seen it and I was fascinated by it, and I decided I wanted to learn it,” she said. “So, I first taught myself and then I did take a few classes to try to find out that I was using the right adhesives and the materials. And then after that, I just, you know, went on to make art.”
Gold retired from her work as a recreational therapist in 2010. After she moved from New Jersey, she returned to her art. For 10 years, Gold has been creating and selling her art in Summit County.
“And then at the end, I just think it … comes full circle. You know, it's a solid piece again,” Gold said of her work. “And it's expressing some of… definitely, my feelings because I made it. And it just feels good.”
Bean Yazzie is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach them at beanyazzie@rmpbs.org.