_An adored teacher, True divides her time between private and public commissions by teaching in various parts of the world. Her energy is contagious, and her quest for experimentation and knowledge confirm her identity as a perpetual student.”___
— JoAnn Loctov, Author, Mosaic Art and Style: Designs for Living Environments
Laurel True is an artist and educator specializing in mixed media, mosaic and public art. She received her BA in African Art and Cultures and has studied at Studio Arte del Mosaico in Ravenna, Italy, Universite Chiek Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal, Parsons School of Design and the Art Institute of Chicago. True is the co- founder of the Institute of Mosaic Art in Oakland, CA and has fostered education in the mosaic arts through teaching and lecturing around the world.
True has been facilitating public and community mosaic projects for almost 20 years and has helped to provide job training and arts education to under served communities in urban environments and developing areas. She has created hundreds of projects over the years, working with volunteers, assistants, students, trades people and artists of all ages on projects that reflect a sense of community pride and cultural significance in the locations where they are sited.
True’s public and commissioned work, created through True Mosaics Studio, can be found in private and civic collections as well as in hospitals, in parks, on commercial buildings and in schools across the United States.
She has also been known to create work that spontaneously emerges graffiti- like on concrete walls, in unexpected settings and with unexpected materials- many times through spontaneous community participation.
Her community projects have mainly been focused in West and East Africa, Oakland, CA, New Orleans and most recently, Haiti. She has been facilitating community mosaic mural projects in Ghana since 2001 where she not only works to encourage artistic expression through community mosaic making, but also helps to foster entrepreneurship, passing on skills that are economically viable.
Laurel has a particular investment in cross- cultural collaborative projects which involve feedback from participants from different parts of the world. In 2006 she began the Woven Stories Project, which focuses on creating permanent, site specific mosaic projects that highlight design collaboration between groups of youth in Africa and groups of youth in the US, specifically in under served areas of Oakland, CA and New Orleans, LA.
Projects are created using design feedback and/ or actual materials contributed from both groups, possibly having similar themes or visual content. Permanent artworks in the form of public art mosaics or community mosaic projects are created in both geographic locations - Africa and in the US. These partner projects highlight cross- cultural collaborations and foster a sense of community between youth of different cultures and from different continents.
Laurel's next project will be in Jacmel, Haiti.
www.TrueMosaics.com
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/True-Mosaics-Studio/276758323289
