Quilling art by Fiona Payne and mosaic art by Janet Houck is now on exhibit in the Social Hall through April 28.

Fiona Payne is a self-taught paper artist who has been practicing the art of quilling since 2013. Paper quilling involves rolling long, very narrow strips of paper tightly around a thin tool, forming spirals into a multitude of shapes, and then arranging those shapes to create a pattern or image. After experimenting with a few different styles of quilling, she found her niche in 2015: quilled paper mosaics. She says she loves the opportunity for both creativity and structure; it’s like putting together a puzzle where you make up each piece as you go. Fiona says “I also love that once you have mastered the basic technique, quilling is infinitely flexible: I relish the challenge of a complex mosaic that takes 40-50 (or more!) hours to complete, and I enjoy being able to set aside a large project in favor of one that goes from start to finish in a weekend.” A lifelong Minnesotan, Fiona currently lives and works in Excelsior and divide her free time between art, books, and parenting a sixth grader, a college freshman, and a demanding Siamese cat.

For artist Janet Houck, mosaic is one of her favorite artistic expressions because it challenges and excites her in both the limitations of, and the variety of, the materials a mosaicist might use. She says: “In the creating, I enjoy the push and pull, the back and forth, between the mind’s designing and the repetitive physical, almost meditative, movements of the hand’s cutting, placing and adhering the tesserae – the small pieces of glass, tile or stone that make up a mosaic and come together visually to form the larger image. In my work I’m inspired by color, shapes, textures, the written word, and the beauty of both the natural world and the world of the imagination.” Janet arrived in Minnesota as a Pennsylvania transplant in 1991, with her beloved husband and their dear striped cat. She says their snowfall here was the infamous, record-breaking Halloween Blizzard. They initially thought that sort of weather was normal, but after being told otherwise, they decided to stay anyway and ended up being charmed by, and happily rooted in, Minnesota.

The artists with be available to talk about their work at an Artist’s Reception after both the first and second services Sunday, April 7.