Magical Koa by Mariana Zopel.
Dimensions: two panels each of 36″ x 20″ x 0.75″
Mariana Zopel was born and raised in northwestern Romania where she received a B.A. in Fine Arts and Art Pedagogy. She moved to the Hawai`i Island in 2012.
As a visual artist who enjoys painting, drawing, and experimenting with multi media, she discovered a passion for mosaics in 2016. “What I thought would be just another way of expressing my creativity, became my main form of artistic expression. I look at this medium as painting using tesserae instead of paint.” Allowing the medium itself to inspire the themes for her creations Mariana finds herself drawn to the beauty, richness, and variety of the Hawaiian ecosystem.
“The kinetic energy of the land with its flora, fauna, and people, the ocean, the sky, the breeze, the lights and the shadows with the emotions they create in me. I am trying to capture and convey through my mosaics using small shards of stained glass and porcelain tesserae like brushstrokes in an impressionist painting.”
