Meet Lori Kay Farr | Mosaic artist and instructor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lori Kay Farr and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lori Kay, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
I think work life balance is important, but can be hard to achieve. As a creative, working traditional hours is hard. Many times, a deadline looms and extra hours are needed. I look at it in seasons. There are busy seasons and then there are the slower times. It is important to carve out some down time for you to relax and refresh your mind. Creative cycles some times happen for me where I get into my creative mood and I will put in many late hours. But I find it satisfying when I finish a project or piece of art work. As a young mom it would be hard to do the schedule I have now but as I have adult children and my responsibilities have shifted, it gives me more opportunities to have longer work sessions in my studio.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I earned a Bachelor’s of Fine Art in Environmental Design from Bowling Green State University in 1988. My husband Darrin and I moved to the Hamilton, Ohio area that same year. We have raised our family in this community. I worked in a variety of creative jobs then became a mother and raised my children.
In 2001 I decided I wanted to learn how to create mosaics. I read books from the library and by trial and error I became a self taught mosaic artist. My interest in creating stained glass mosaics grew as my skills improved. I began creating custom orders, many of them as pet portraits in stained glass. I was also a homeschool parent and had my opportunity to share mosaics with other homeschool students.
I was active in creating drama set designs for church events and other drama productions. I have always had a love for public art. My first opportunity to create some public art came in 2012 when I was selected to create two ArtWorks Big Pig Gig pigs that were displayed in downtown Cincinnati. One was painted and the other was fully mosaicked with my homeschool students. This lead to other opportunities to create public art with ArtWorks Cincinnati in the community.
Doors continued to open in the art world to allow me to develop and grow in my field as a mosaic artist. In 2016 I was hired to teach mosaics at the Fitton Center for the Creative Arts. I started off with one class every session but have grown it to 7 class and workshop offerings every six week session. This was the same year I turned 50, and I decided I wanted to explore the option to work as an artist full time. With my connection to the Fitton Center, it opened the door to new opportunities for me as an artist. I was hired to create a three story mural with StreetSpark mural program. I was able to work with other artists to learn how to create large outdoor painted murals. These skills helped me in 2020 when I proposed a mosaic mural for the Fitton Center. Due to the Covid shutdown and limited opportunity to teach classes, I came up with the idea to create a collaborative mosaic mural to keep my former students engaged in art while we could not offer in person classes. This grew into a wonderful opportunity to reach out to other mosaic artists across the world. After approval from the Fitton Center, an artist call for glass mosaic butterflies was put out to any artists wanting to contribute to our collaborative mosaic mural. Within weeks I started to receive butterflies from across the US and from across the world. In just a few months we received over 1000 butterflies from across the world. The online community for mosaic artist is large and strong, and with their encouragement, I was able to create four mosaic columns entitled “Wings Of Hope”. It was my way of responding to the world wide pandemic of 2020. I wanted to create a positive way for artists to work together on one mosaic but done in a safe way. We did a few community events to allow people to stop by and make a butterfly for the mural. The mural was constructed over four months and was installed in July 2021 with the help of two mosaic artists Misha Moore from Colorado and Kim Rexford from Connecticut, along with my husband Darrin and my son Brennen.
I have discovered creating mosaics has given me my artistic voice. I love that I get to share this art medium with many people over the years through my classes. I love that it has allowed me to create public artwork through out my community through many different platforms. And I love when I can do custom orders for clients.
I am also a member of the Society of American Mosaic Artists (SAMA) and the Women’s Art Club of Hamilton. Both of these groups help grow my skills and have given opportunities to exhibit artwork. I have had artwork in multiple exhibitions in the region and out of state and I sell artwork through local galleries. Many of my mosaics have been added to private collections around the USA and Europe.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would definitely invite them to Hamilton, Ohio. This city has transformed over the past decade. I often take visitors to Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, then to Marcum Park for free music events during the summer. One of our favorite spots is the Pinball Garage on Third Street. Excellent food, great games and wonderful drinks. The owner Brad Baker has made this a great family destination in our community and I even had the privilege of designing and painting his bar top.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My shoutout would include several people and groups, but the biggest influence was from The Fitton Center For Creative Arts. In 2016, I was hired by The Fitton Center For Creative Arts in Hamilton, Ohio to teach mosaic classes to students of all ages. This nonprofit art organization is a wonderful asset to the city of Hamilton and the surrounding communities. It offered me an opportunity to earn a living by teaching a range of mosaic classes, workshops and kid camps. It also supports working artists through several programs and projects. I have been able to create public artwork in my community through the StreetSpark mural projects. In 2017, I was hired to work with a team to create a mural on the side of a building in downtown Hamilton. The mural entitled “The Delicate Balance of Progress” helped me grow and strengthen my artist skills and knowledge toward public art projects. In 2022 I designed and painted a large traffic control box for StreetSpark along with 12 other boxes painted by other artists throughout the community.

Website: https://Www.LKFdesigns.net

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Image Credits
Lori Kay Farr