Marissa’s Mosaics and Works

09/02/2026

Hi, it’s been a while. These are just some of the cats I’ve made in the past month or so. I do commissions too. I’m in production mode since Saint Paul’s Fall Art Crawl is less than 2 months away. I’ll be a the Virginia Street Church again on October 16th- 18th. Stay tuned for more 4x4 inch coasters, I’ve been making a lot more than cats this year.

08/14/2026

Lately I’ve been hand sewing these embroidery patches. My friend Kevin has been helping me get into embroidery lately and I’ve been helping him with putting the drills from diamond art on his embroidery canvas to add an extra sparkle. I also thought I lost the yellow dragon and the cat in the moon, but I found them today under a piece of paper in my studio. These are all hand sewing embroidered with the help of some stencils. I love to make these, but I can’t make these at home because my cat Egan will play with the string. I love my Egan, but he is a menace.

08/01/2026

Today marks 3 years since I started at my art studio MSS and it has been an incredible 3 years. I first got into mosaics when I work for Compas as an artist apprentice in the summer of 2016 & 2017 for their ArtWorks program. During the second summer the mosaics were installed in an underpass at the Trout Brook Nature Sanctuary. I was still making art in between fall 2017 & summer 2023, but it was just stuff I could do at home. In 2023 another member of Vail Clubhouses convinced me to get a tour of MSSMN in St Paul, so I took a leap of faith and started consistently going to MSS St. Paul August 1st, 2023. I couldn’t have gotten this far, of course, without Oasis For Youth The Arc Minnesota Fresh Eye Arts or Martha Bird Art . I have come far in these 3 years. This October will be my 5th time being in the St. Paul Art Crawl at Virginia Street Church. I am looking forward to what the next years have in store for me. I don’t have to hold out for a hero because now I am my own hero.

07/17/2026

Here is my newest complete commission! The dog, Caymen, belongs to my dad’s cousin’s family. They are some of my closest family here in Minnesota. Caymen is a mixed breed dog. I’m so happy I was able to make this dog into a mosaic.

07/06/2026

This project has taken a long time to make, as it was my in between project, project. Whenever I had finished a project and still had time to work on another I’d work on this. But in the past month I really got into it, but I started designing it over a year ago. Now it’s complete!

05/28/2026

Hi, it’s been a while. I’ve been busy with some custom pet portraits, and with the MRAC Creative Connection Grant I got. I’ve sorted my glass and have them on display in my studio space. There has been a lot of stress with the place I having my grant at was going to close because of funding. Now though it is funded until the end of the year! These coasters are some examples of what someone cat do at my class at June 4th, June 11th, and June 18. With a catch all grouting class on the 25th. Then the stepping stone classes will be in July & August. This project is called Stepping Stones to Mental Health Recovery.

04/24/2026

04/24/2026

I shopped at Archon Glassworks on Wednesday afternoon. I came in to see if they had the color of glass I needed for a custom pet portrait, unfortunately the glass color was discontinued, but they were able to find a long scrap of the color in the back. I also got one of every color for the grant project I’ll be facilitating this summer.

04/13/2026

This was my booth at the Spring St. Paul Art Crawl at Virginia Street Church this weekend. I was the one in charge of counting people because I have a clicker for counting people. There was 200 people on Friday, 430 on Saturday and 380 today. So around 1,000 people came through our art crawl location. I might have counted some people twice, but I was gone out for at least 10 minutes every day to have personal breaks.

I sold mostly pendants, coasters and cards this year. I didn’t sell any of my hanging pieces, but I met my minimum goal and got a lot of interest in custom pet portrait coaster commissions. I also ran out of business cards.

I had fun even though I’ve been dealing with a sinus infection this weekend. I hope to get more connections as I go to different Art Crawls these following weekends.

04/07/2026

This is the custom frame I made for my mom at my twin sister’s wedding two and a half years ago. It’s all 3 of us together, plus my niece Elizabeth inside our older sister’s Chelsea’s belly. Our mom commissioned me to make a frame for this photo last year and I finally got around to designing and finishing it last week, after a rough last year. With our dad passing away in October 2025. I based the frame off of the bouquets.