A Minnesota mosaic artist takes her work from large-scale to home-sized

Anyone passing the H gates at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport's Terminal 2 has had a chance to see Stacia Goodman's "Northern Lights: Winter Run," a sweeping mosaic of wintry grays, vibrant blues and lively greens depicting a sled dog team under the aurora borealis.

Goodman has been designing and installing her nature-inspired mosaics in both public and private venues for 15 years. A northern Minnesota native, she grew up in a trailer house in a rural, impoverished community, where her parents owned and operated a gas station.

"We didn't have much money for toys," she says. "I mostly played with sticks and leaves and dirt, and I think that definitely affected my attitude towards reusing materials and reflecting nature in my work."

Her first venture into public art was as a kid making a series of holy card collages and dioramas that she gave to her local church. After leaving home for college to pursue art, she tried a number of creative avenues, but says she "fell into mosaic by default — I tried many other art forms and mosaic was the one that clicked. My first work was atrocious, but something about it made me want to keep going in that direction."

She collects wood, stone, glass and other local materials, using them along with custom tile, in the large works she's best known for, like those adorning walls at St. Cloud State University and Riverland Community College in Albert Lea. Water is a recurring theme. She often includes hidden treats for observant viewers, such as a toy bone charm nestled among the tiles in "Northern Lights," or mirror fragments that let passersby see themselves in the art.

Lately, Goodman has returned to her roots in some ways, offering smaller pieces like the ones recently on display in her Gallery 360 show, "100 Years." All are constructed from upcycled wood, inspired in part by Ojibwe painter and sculptor George Morrison, known for using gathered driftwood and mosaic techniques.

As an artist specializing in public works, Goodman competes with artists across the nation for grants and contracts, sinking hours of design work and proposal writing into every opportunity in a field with, she says, a 99% rejection rate. She hangs on to her day job as a freelance communications and public relations specialist. She creates mosaics on commission, too, and sells home-sized pieces through her website, staciagoodmanmosaics.com.

"What I love about my art is capturing a story and presenting it as an experience that people can walk through and interact with," says Goodman.