Making art and music at home feeds you something special in the same way that making a good meal out of real food and sharing it with your family nourishes you better than something that comes right out of a can. Canned music and canned food.... it's probably not all that tasty. But it is right there and ready for easy ingestion. For some people that's plenty, for some its a feast, God love 'em. 

Others are compelled to that extra effort that makes something special out of bits and pieces, whether it requires chopped up vegetables for the soup and salad and  fresh  baked bread, or the hours of practice that go into being able to play an instrument. 

And then there's mosaic art, the kind that requires hundreds and thousands of pieces, each considered and chosen, each placed in a pattern and then glued into place. 

Just collecting the bits and beads and polymer clay, telephone wire, vintage Art Deco era glass tiles and lapis stones that are in  Bryan Helm's Blue Glass Guitar was a time consuming job, and he also makes music--and often dinner. Bryan has covered several guitars, violins, a banjo and other items. His mosaic pieces showcase a love of pattern texture, color, and a  techno-tribal decorative sensibility. 


People often ask "Is that guitar still playable?". They aren't--and they were unplayable before being re-made into visual art. Bryan collects broken instruments and uses them as base forms in his work. The curves lines, and precise shapes of an instrument are beautiful in themselves. Add paint, glitter, polymer clay tiles, Pearl-X mica powders, seed beads, bugle beads, and glass, colored copper wire coils blue pearls, along with blue telephone wire for the strings, and this guitar sings without playing a note. 

Click here for more about the Blue Glass Guitar

Sarajane&Bryan Helm©2008  artists and musicians retain all rights