This article appeared in the May 11, 2012 Jewish Advocate.

Mosaic artist Ariel Shoemaker pieces it all together

By Susie Davidson

Special to the Advocate

Much more than art supplies go into the work of Ariel Finelt Shoemaker. By weaving meaningful snippets from her clients’ backgrounds into colorful mixtures of glass and mortar, Shoemaker incorporates a bit of life itself into her mosaics.

Indeed, her Chai frames take on personas of their own, as do her mezuzot, hamsas (good luck charms) and other decorative and functional items. “All my work is 100 percent handmade in my studio in Needham,” Shoemaker said.

Although the majority of Shoemaker’s creations are done on commission, she does keep some works in stock for purchase. “It depends on the items and time of year,” she said. “My mosaic art is very labor-intensive, and can be customized to suit the client’s needs and aesthetics.” Simcha gifts do, however, need to be commissioned. “This is usually not a problem for my clients, as they would prefer to be able to be involved in the process of picking out the colors, or matching specific materials to the recipient’s personality,” she said.

Shoemaker’s Chai frames are so personalized, she keeps none in stock. “My husband and I custom-cut and design the base of each piece, and the glass work,” she said. For her husband’s grandparents, she incorporated family pictures into two 5-by-7-inch frames. For an anniversary piece, she will use fragments of the glass that the groom broke at the couple’s wedding. She also creates custom gifts such as a Hamsa or Mezzuzah, for a new baby. “These are nice items that are decorative, as well as ‘protective’ of the baby’s room,” she said.

When she takes on a commission, she engages the customer in a conversation. “I ask about the space that the mosaic will ‘live’ in, about the colors in the room, about what accent features they have, and what the home-owner aesthetic is,” she said. “I ask similar questions that an

Interior Decorator might, and then I am better equipped to create something fitting for their home or workplace.” When necessary or requested, Shoemaker visits the intended home where her mosaic will eventually hang. “I like to know as much as I can about the physical and spiritual place where the mosaic work will be viewed, so that I can infuse it, or not, with just the right amount of customization,” she said.

She prefers to use symbols, which might even include text within a piece. For example, she might incorporate "I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine,” from the Song of Songs, for a Jewish wedding or anniversary item, or perhaps, reference the writings of the Ba’al Shem Tov, or scenes of Jerusalem. Color choices of cobalt blues, whites, golds and turquoise can further evoke Israel, as can stones from the mystical town of Svat. “My approach is to use symbol instead of saying, if you will,” she said.

A self-taught, professional mosaic artist and arts educator, Shoemaker creates custom works for private clients and independent vendors. She calls her company Rufus Magufis, which is her childhood nickname. “It stems from my inability to pronounce my middle name, Ruth,” she said. “When asked what my name was, I would reply, ‘Ariel Ruf’.” Her parents began calling her Rufus and rhyming it with Magufis. “It is a name, and association to a time, that was carefree, very creative, innocent, and brewing with energy and joie de vive!” she said.

A native of Demarest, N.J., Shoemaker earned a bachelor of fine arts at Emerson College and a master’s in education, with a concentration in the arts, at Harvard University. She was active in Emerson’s Hillel as well as the Hillels at Boston University and Harvard. Her husband, Brian, whom she met on JDate and married in 2005, is a middle school math teacher. “He is also a wonderful carpenter,” she said. “He takes my sketches and ideas for the base or substrate for my mosaic work, and transforms them into beautiful forms.”

The couple has two young sons, Simon Asher and Max Zahav. They are active members of Temple Beth Shalom in Needham as well as the JCC, and regularly participate in family events sponsored by The PJ Library.Past members of Temple Israel in Boston, they helped establish The Riverway Project, which encourages young adults to remain in a Jewish community and synagogue life.

Shoemaker began a long association with Hadassah when a friend suggested she attend the Boston chapter's Ruach monthly meeting. “I was skeptical about going; I had grown up with the notion that Hadassah was an organization that Bubbies enjoyed,” she recalled. “But, there I was, enjoying myself in the company of women my age and slightly older, participating in a flower-arranging event meant to inspire us to arrange our own flowers in our homes for Pesach.” She became a member, and her mother-in-law sponsored the continuing membership as a Chanukah gift.

Over the past eight years, she has donated mosaic and fused glass art creations to the organization’s Annual Art Auction to raise

money for Women’s Cancer Research through Hadassah Hospital. She also donates pieces to other fundraising events, and in addition to her participation as a featured artist at gallery and group shows such as at Newton Open Studios, The Wellesley Marketplace, and The DeCordova Museum’s annual Art in the Park event, where she often presents her work with other Jewish artists, her work can be seen by appointment, or on display for sale at the new location of Huntington TV on Route 9 in Newton and at The NOA gift shop.

Shoemaker recently began a new technique for glass fusing. “I coined it Fused Glass Micro mosaics, wherein I finally have a venue to both recycle fusible materials left over from Mosaic projects and to work in a micro, or very small, format,” she said. “The beauty of this technique is that I get to use my skills honed over the past ten years in Mosaic Art, and apply them to this tiny format.” She places the finished, tiny works into a kiln, and fires it at 1300 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately one and a half hours. “And then, Wow!” she said. “A totally new and beautiful piece of glass emerges as something that might be useable in a mosaic work or as the pendant in a necklace.” Shoemaker also creates her own tiles, which she uses in a variety of pieces, including necklaces.

Most of Shoemaker’s clients find her through her website. “My website is not an ‘Internet Store’, though,” she explained. “I don’t have a marketplace feature on the site.” People are able to inquire about a particular piece, however, or contact her through the site to begin a conversation that might lead to their commis-sioning a mosaic work. “But typically, people who buy my work read about me in a brochure from an Arts and Crafts Show such as Newton Open Studios in the spring, or Wellesley Marketplace in the fall,” she said. “They will see my work at the show, take my business card, call that week, or perhaps hold onto it for weeks, months or years - until the time is right to order something custom.” Shoemaker has exhibited her work in galleries and stores as well. Most recently, her work was in the 13Forest Gallery and Store in Arlington. The gift shop at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln carries her work as well. Shoemaker will also be the featured artist at the NOA Jewelry, Handcrafts and Gift Store in West Concord and Groton (a Boston location is in the works).

She prefers human contact over digital. “Even a professional photographer can’t capture how my mosaics dance in the light and the way that each piece varies as viewed from different angles,” she explains. “Most people don’t realize that mosaics are a unique art form; the three-dimensionality and the iridescent qualities of the glass are things that must be appreciated in person, not from the screen of a computer.”