Laurel True Biography

"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, glass and ceramic 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 underserved 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 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 and on commercial buildings across the United States. She has also been known to create work that spontaneously emerges graffiti- like on concrete walls and in unexpected settings and with unexpected materials, many times through spontaneous community participation.

In addition to facilitating community and public projects True also pursues an active studio practice. Her work focuses both on process and product, giving viewers and project participants a chance to experience artworks from both and internal and external standpoint. Her conceptual work weaves together fine art and craft based techniques, utilizing both natural and man made materials to achieve varying effects and communicate disparate cultural influences. Projects often juxtapose themes of beauty and despair, bounty and loss and celebration and ritual.

Using found detritus such as asphalt, concrete, brick, glass and other collected rubble, True pieces her installations together with the precision of ancient roman mosaics.