My heart is full of gratitude as I write this. Artists from all over the world are taking steps to be a part of something bigger than themselves by contributing to the walls of The Ruins Project here in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

​A few weeks ago, The Ruins Project was fortunate to welcome NPR 2017 Kroc Fellow, Adelina Lancianese to its walls and pathways.

I love bikers. They fascinate me. The day trippers and the long trekkers, the senior citizen recumbents and the streamlined, thru-riders looking to eat up the miles; they all share the common denominator of passing by my plot of land.

Being a good artist is hard. On the one hand, you have to learn the techniques of your medium to a point that you are at least proficient. On the other, you must discover ways to surprise or delight or yourself and the world. That’s called having a voice. A stamp. A flag. A fluttering banner that can be recognized from across the battlefield.

I write this, as I sit, nestled in front of the new woodstove, looking out to a snow-blanketed Ruins Project. This winter has brought two new challenges to the homestead; wood-fired heat as our primary source of fuel. And a puppy. Both of these beasts require a near constant vigilance.

I write this in the afterglow of a satisfying Ruins Project week in which the power of the artistic sensibility was tapped. The further I travel through life as a working artist, the clearer it becomes that time, as an element to creativity, is not linear.

Makin somethin out of nothin…that’s a line I grew up hearing. The women in my family would use it with a quiet pride after cooking up an impressive meal from what seemed like an empty refrigerator. For years I felt a bit disgraced that I had not mastered the skill. Until all of the sudden, I had. Just not with food.

I have recently returned from what was possibly the hardest vacation I have ever had the good fortune to survive.

​I hate to travel. It wasn’t always this way. My family loves to point out all of my red dots on the map from years of teaching and travel… Ireland, China, most of Western Europe, Czech Republic, The Canary Islands, Argentina… Despite this, I’ve fallen in love with my own little corner of the world and don’t much like to leave its comforts unless tempted with the good carrots.

The easy answer is everything.

I find myself racing to keep up with the momentum that is 2016 at Rachel Sager Mosaics.

I got a D in geometry when I was in the 11th grade. Being a moderately bright, well-meaning student, this black spot carried some serious shock value for both me and my parents.

What’s the big deal about this word that we mosaicists seem to endlessly obsess over? Andamento.

A reader knows she’s read a good book when it leads her to another book. That little shiver of surprise that she feels when an author or a character refers to another writer or another book; that’s one of the perks of immersive reading. I say immersive because so much of our reading has devolved into those clipped, abbreviated snippets of information. Slow, leisurely reading has become the exception.

What exactly is a symposium anyway? The Greeks invented it. One definition that I like is: an event that provided liberation from everyday restraints within a carefully regulated environment.

This is the year, 2015, that I find myself the surprised owner of an abandoned coal mine.

Article written for diMosaico Magazine

Artist Rachel Sager Lynch has been making mosaics for about ten years with material she finds right under her feet.