May to show mosaic art in Las Vegas

Trisha Stachowski

Arts & Entertainment Editor

Monta May, part of Saint Mary’s University’s Marketing and Communication staff, will be showing her mosaic artwork in a Las Vegas art gallery from May 31 through June 29.

“My inspiration is basically the world around me, anything and everything that catches my eye,” said May. She said the emotions experienced each day can be a fantastic source of inspiration. “Imagery often triggers an emotional response. I try to find a way to communicate that emotion and the general idea,” said May.

In order to create her mosaic masterpieces, May uses the hammer and hardie technique to cut each piece of glass or stone. The hammer and hardie technique has been used for mosaic art for many years, according to May.

May said she has been a visual artist all of her life. When she was visiting Loyola University in Chicago, May viewed a mosaic piece about the physical sciences on a campus building. According to May, that was when she decided that she was going to try creating mosaic pieces of her own. In the beginning, May said she taught her self, but she eventually studied at the Chicago Mosaic School. May returned to study three more times at the school, and she will participate in another master-level class in April. In these classes, students are instructed by world-renowned artists that the school brings in.

Recently, May has been working on pieces revolving around water and the absence of water. Her pieces are influenced by the general idea of water and how all life depends on it in one way or another. Two of her pieces focus on a desert landscape and the results of the lack of water.

May will show 10 to 12 never-before-seen pieces on the SMU campus before they are displayed in Las Vegas. From there, May’s artwork will be shown in the LaChica Art & Music gallery in Las Vegas. May’s Las Vegas showing will likely include water-inspired pieces, in addition to a more broad influence of the natural world and sustainability. According to May, she tries to create the “interaction of our human activity and the world around us.”

May’s recent artwork will be on display in the Ben Miller Lobby in the Page Theatre from April 11 to May 11 with a reception on April 26 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.