It was a crafts TV program that got her hooked.

Robin Lowe was watching the woman on her screen breaking up tiles in a pillowcase for a mosaic piece and right away it was something the North Burnaby resident thought she’d like to try.

“I knew it was something I would do just for myself.”

Her first piece was a mosaic-topped table which today she’s not thrilled with, but at the same time can’t bear to part with. It now holds a place of honour in her living room holding up her fish tank.

Now, seven years after seeing that TV show, Lowe is about to open a third solo exhibition of her stained glass mosaic works, May 3-27, at Broken By Design Mosaic Studio in Vancouver.

While she started out working with ceramic tiles and focusing on subjects drawn from nature – flowers, leaves, butterflies and the like – “now I’m more into contemporary abstract design. I’ve really gotten into colour and bright saturated colours.”

Inspired by famed Spanish artist Antonio Gaudi, her new show focuses on her abstract works, including table and floor lamps, and larger wall hangings.

She started working with stained glass after asking a stained glass artist for a box of his scraps. From that, she literally took bits and shards straight out of the box and created her first such piece, which hangs in her study.

“It’s amazing what you can make out of nothing, a box of somebody’s garbage,” said Lowe, 29. “Turning it into something beautiful.”

She’s always been interested in working with industrial-type materials such as wood, glass and acrylic, so stained glass brings all those interests together.

Lowe loves the fact that mosaic art has been happening, and surviving, for millennia. “It’s so old I feel like I’m a part of something that’s been going on for thousands of years,” she said.

It’s also an art form that is the antithesis of what she sees as today’s disposable society. Unlike paintings or works on paper, her mosaics will likely live on long after she is gone. “There’s no telling how long it will last,” she said. “I think that’s really neat, an imprint of my time here.”

But mainly, it’s a means for her to express her creative side.

Growing up on a 90-acre ranch in Moyie in the East Kootenays, she always enjoyed drawing and doing crafts. But as she entered her teens, she was encouraged by her parents to focus on more practical ventures.

She grew up wanting to be a veterinarian, until her marks in math and science dashed those hopes. She dabbled in all sorts of jobs, until she realized that “growing up on a farm and being an artist, I don’t belong in an office.”

Lowe did find her calling, at least a part-time one: she works as an art director, set decorator and buyer in the local film industry. In between, she focuses on her mosaics, which has bloomed into a career of its own.

“People started showing an interest in them, and I started selling them ... It really took on a life of its own.”

In addition to lamps, mirrors, wall hangings and other decorative pieces, she has also received commissions for countertops, and floor and lighting installations. Part of the appeal, particularly for people looking for housewarming or wedding gifts, is that no two pieces are ever exactly alike, she said.

And while the abstracts may seem simpler to produce, Lowe noted that they actually pose a greater challenge because of a need for the glass pieces to be of uniform shapes and sizes. Her more realistic subjects can be created from odd shapes because just as in nature, nothing is perfect, she noted.

Lowe also teaches workshops on the art form at Burnaby community centres and at Broken By Design. The greatest challenge for newcomers to the art form is “they have to have patience and they have to have faith.”

Often, she said, her students can’t see the end result and start to doubt the direction of their pieces.

“When it’s finished and all grouted and all done, they can’t believe they did it,” she said. “The outcome is going to be great. It might not be what you expect ... but it’s hard to mess up with beautiful glass. How could you go wrong?”

Lowe readily admits sometimes she’ll finish a piece and the next day wonder, “wow, who did that?”

By her early 20s, Lowe said she was craving creativity. Mosaics helped fill that void.

“If I’m away from my mosaic room for a few weeks or months I get really grumpy,” she said with a laugh. “It keeps me grounded.”

It’s almost meditative for her, a quiet, relaxing time when she focuses intently on what’s in front of her. She’s even been known to work on mosaic projects while on camping trips with her husband.

“Creative people, you just can’t stifle it, it’s a spirit, you can’t put the fire out.”

For Lowe, working on mosaics “really makes me happy ... It’s like driving somewhere and knowing the destination’s going to be great.”

Robin Lowe’s solo exhibition of her stained glass mosaic art, dubbed “In Pieces,” is on until May 27 at the Broken By Design Mosaic Studio, 219 E. 16th Ave., Vancouver. Opening reception tonight, May 3, 7-11 p.m. Gallery hours are Tuesday to Friday 12-7 p.m. and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information call 604-871-0900 or visit www.robinlowemosaic.com or www.brokenbydesign.ca/.

wchow@burnabynewsleader.com

mario bartel/newsleader