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Arisha Burlingame

After half a lifetime living in Jamaica, St. Croix, Santa Cruz, and Oakland, Arisha Burlingame has returned to her native Oklahoma and begun a new phase of life, as a glass mosaic artist. Her travels throughout Asia and the Caribbean have had a strong influence on the images she creates. "My mosaics evolve out of my respect and admiration for women from all cultures and walks of life. I am fascinated and inspired by moods, textures, designs and color combinations in their ethnic, traditional garments. Much of my life's work has been with healing and the education of women of diverse cultures. Through that work we have been blessed to celebrate our differences, our gifts, our struggles, failures and accomplishments and the reconnected purpose which comes from arising above our challenges."

Arisha's return to Oklahoma to care for her aging mother sparked several new journeys; the first was in healing, when she attained her degree and license to practice herbalism. The second was an artistic journey of expression through batik, screen printing, fabric dying and painting classes at the Firehouse Art Center. Later, she studied mosaic art with instructor Pam Bradford at the Ginkgo Tree Studios. For the past three years, glass mosaic has been her sole creative medium. The process of creating glass mosaics, Arisha states, "is something similar to an out of body experience... there with the colors and the glass... is an energy that surges through me and helps guide the color choices and the styles of cuts of glass. While conveying the essence of a scene, details are left to the viewers imagination. The various shapes and directions of glass and light are like eye candy. Your eyes dance with the movement."

Her enthusiasm for the medium of glass mosaics has led to many collaborations and projects including a glass mosaic murals project with the Oklahoma Department of Tourism in the historical all Black towns of Oklahoma. Arisha's most recent works in glass mosaic have been exhibited at Sandalwood & Sage in Norman.