Blog

Rachel Sager’s The Ruins Project, Part Three

This week we are sharing the final of three articles by Rachel Sager reflecting on The Ruins Project, a long-term collaborative mosaic art installation amid the ruins of a former coal mine in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Rachel Sager operates the Sager Mosaics Studio, which is located near mile marker 104 on the Great Allegheny Passage and adjacent to The Ruins Project, which represents the rebirth of abandoned American coal country into a spiritual and artistic pilgrimage and destination for adventure seekers and lovers of art and history.

In her first article, Rachel introduced the site and the project and outlined her first rule for collaborators contributing artworks—they must Honor What Was. Rachel set in place a trio of rules the first year, before any of the collaborative art was begun. The rules apply to everyone. The artists use them to make mosaic in ways that preserve the delicate balance of her vision. The rules also help visitors to appreciate the story that is unfolding on deeper, more meaningful levels.

Then, for her next article, she reflected on the second rule—to build relationships with the raw materials. The process reflects a sense of place—exploring creativity, storytelling, and mosaic traditions.

Today, for her final submission, Rachel considers an essential aesthetic technique—the use of andamento or the way of the line in the construction of the artworks. Beyond a principle of the craft, the use of andamento takes on a meaning that is both grounding and transcendent for Rachel Sager. Join her in understanding the balance of what she refers to as “walking the line.”

By Rachel Sager, Guest Contributor

Rachel Sager

Walking the Line at The Ruins—Exploring the Language of Mosaic

There is a fancy word in mosaic land that holds a kind of sovereignty over all other words.

It’s stronger than tesserae, which means each individual square of stone. It’s stronger than material, which can mean glass or ceramic or pebbles or shells.

It’s even stronger than composition, which is crucial for all the arts.

It is the ABC of mosaic. Some describe it as the language that mosaicists speak.

It can be described as flow. And sometimes as pathways.

I have taken to calling the line. And I ask all artists at The Ruins to walk the line.

(The greatest respect goes to Johnny Cash for gifting the world with those three brilliant words.)

Andamento

But you don’t see andamento in all mosaic; only the kind that is steeped in the old ways. Let me take you back about one thousand years, give or take.

The mosaicists who came before us built an impressive infrastructure of rules (guidelines) that enabled them to tell their stories. When we see Greek, Roman, and Byzantine mosaic work, we are looking at centuries of cultural knowledge that evolved slowly and specifically to perfect the image. Whether that image was the human form, a sea monster, or a mountain landscape, the elegant lines made them all come alive.

Shape, size, angle, placement, direction, and space are some of elements that make up these rules. I teach a contemporary version of them in my popular online course, Intuitive Andamento.

For those who work within the miracle of the line, experiencing a mosaic that does not respect andamento is just not quite as exciting. We work in pieces, not paint. Tesserae, not clay. The inherent heaviness in these pieces of things provides us with the challenge of creating the illusion of lightness. There is no one solution to this challenge. The beauty of the problem lies in the unending ways an artist can create that lightness and elegance of the line.

The artists of The Ruins each have their own particular voices as they walk and interpret the line.

Look closely and you will see the lines of movement in every stone of Margy Cottingham’s portrait of the Anonymous Miner

My Perspective on Walking the Line

By nature, artists are meant to redefine boundaries and push others into uncomfortably new places, right? I agree. For me, pushing into new places works best when I am working within the line. My hands, brain, heart, and soul do their best when building a line that starts with one piece and reinvents itself with every piece that follows. I experience an absolute individual liberty within the confines of the line. I don’t know what’s coming around the next bend—and that’s the whole point.

Sandstone square, smalti sliver, marble rectangle, limestone circle—jumping into the rabbit hole of andamento, possibly never to come out again! As some may feel confined by following the rules of what makes mosaic language work, I experience complete liberation. When looking at the details of my work, you are seeing a human being tapping into a communication style that works better than speech or text for her. It is pure expression tempered through technique.

 

An Alchemical Map of Mosaic by Rachel Sager

I think of walking the line as an unanswerable question because there is no limit to what I can express with my lines. Completely abstract or highly realistic, my lines are me. If I am doing it right, my lines become an extension of my personality, my philosophy, and dare I say it? Yes, I do…my soul.

When I am building lines my brain switches to another frequency. I experience a peace that is missing in my other life. When I look for that next square of stone, there are no doubts and no second guessing. I am sure of my choice. And then I am sure of my next choice. I choose with confidence whether to set a keystone, a cube-like shape, a sliver, a rectangle, a circle, or even a triangle. I choose, mostly on an intuitive level, how to angle the shape of stone or glass into its bed of mortar. One way of describing this phenomenon is that I put the best of myself into my lines every day. My glaring imperfections in life contrast to the little bits of perfection that I can build onto the substrate.

E Pluribus Unum at The Ruins by Rachel Sager and Deb Englebaugh.

Building the line makes me a better person.

The line builder is expressing herself within the line. She may be working in the confines of some boundaries, but those are secondary to her total immersion in building lines that stand on their own, lines that speak for themselves. Nothing makes this kind of mosaicist happier than making all those hundreds and thousands of choices, knowing that with each one she is expressing actions that are deeply intimate but also universally common.

Argentinian artist Alejandra Martin representing her country as a map at The Ruins.

We can compare line building to architecture: creating little communities of tesserae that can theoretically be never-ending cities of communication, from a single tesserae house to a collection of tesserae villages, onward toward cityscapes, patchwork fields, layered landscapes, or even global swaths of expression.

Some mosaicists compare the line to writing. One word builds on the next. Each word should work to make the one before and after it stronger, or if not stronger, then at least more interesting. Every word (tessera) matters to the overall story (composition).

Can you see the lines? Sager Mosaics andamento

Some mosaicists are fluent in andamento. They don’t have to think as they choose the next right stone (word). Others are new to the language, and their newness shows in the awkward placement and shapes of their stone. But all the artists of The Ruins understand that walking the line is an adventure that should never really be over. Because with each piece set, we are walking the line as we build it.

One piece at a time.

A very small line at The Ruins by Patty Darke Thomas

A Trio of Rules

This ends the trio of rules that help give The Ruins its form and function.

Without #1 of Honoring What Was, we would lose the stories of the past.

Without #2 of Building Relationships with Raw Material, we would lose the intimacy of connecting with the earth that is so important for artists who spend time here.

Without #3 of Walking the Line, we would lose the structure of an ancient language that, for the contemporary mosaicist, is just as important today as it was a thousand years ago.

The three rules work together to preserve what we already have while building on the mosaic of The Ruins future.

All images are courtesy of Rachel Sager. 

Rachel Sager, The Storytelling Mosaicist, has been making mosaic, writing about mosaic, speaking about mosaic, and teaching mosaic for over twenty years. Her signature forager and intuitive teaching styles have changed how mosaic is experienced and have helped build on the golden age that the art form is enjoying in these exciting decades.

As the owner and creator of The Ruins Project and Sager Mosaics, Rachel lives and works as an Appalachian entrepreneur in the hills and hollows of her hometown just down the river from Pittsburgh in Fayette County.  

The easiest (and most engaging) way to keep up with what’s happening at The Ruins is by subscribing to The Ruins Substack which is also where you can find the growing episodes of The Ruins Podcast, a collection of conversations that Rachel hosts with all walks of creative people who interact with her cathedral to coal.

She hopes you will join her in her quest to unearth optimism; some days with a shovel, some days with a hammer, and some days with a pen.

The Ruins is accessible through guided tours only. To make arrangements go to Book a Tour.

This is the second in a series by Rachel Sager. You can read Honor What Was, the first rule, and stay tuned for Rule #3  with more of The Ruins story.

Members of the Glitterbox Theater collective: (from left) Tree, Anna, Bailey, Amos, Lex, and Chris at their outdoor showcase during June’s Homestead Live Fridays event.

Homestead Live Fridays—Vibrancy Through the Arts

By Gita Michulka

At the heart of Homestead Live Fridays is a celebration of community. Certainly of Homestead itself, with its rich history and long-standing residents—but also of the clusters of venues and businesses who have formed vibrant, interconnected communities centered around the arts, music, and expression within the neighborhood.

The event series, presented by Rivers of Steel and the Steel Valley Accelerator, features local performers and live music within partnering bars and restaurants, along with art exhibitions, workshops, vendors, and activities in Homestead’s Eighth Avenue business district on the final Friday of each month from 6:00 – 10:00 p.m. This “community crawl” allows visitors and residents a chance to experience diverse programming while also shopping and grabbing a bite to eat, all while making connections between the Live Fridays partners with similar offerings.

Homestead Live Fridays arts partners include Glitterbox Theater, Eberle Studios and Gallery, Pittsburgh Sound + Image, and KSD & The Radio Room. This eclectic mix has one big thing in common—they all strive to give a wide range of art and artists a platform—and in the process, they have elevated the arts scene in Homestead to captivating levels while revitalizing notable buildings from Homestead’s past.

In June, members of the Glitterbox collective created a welcoming space in the parking lot of the old Oldsmobile building, playfully jumping rope and providing impromptu juggling lessons for visitors.

A Welcoming Addition—Glitterbox Theater

Glitterbox Theater, who recently relocated to Homestead after a successful three-year tenure on Melwood Avenue, is dedicated to giving performances of all kinds “a stage, a platform, a microphone” through affordable and accessible community-based theater rentals, according to Teresa “Tree” Martuccio, a spokesperson for the collective. The group particularly aims to be queer normative, where all types of people can feel welcome and comfortable.

Though their new residence—located at 210 W. Eighth Avenue in the former Oldsmobile building—is currently under construction while they get settled in, that doesn’t stop their members from putting on a good show during Live Fridays. Utilizing their outdoor space for the Friday night festivities, they have plans for large live paintings, circus-themed activities, and music—all of which guests can participate in or can simply observe as they drop by during the event.

Glitterbox is currently in the last push of a capital campaign to raise the funds needed to revitalize their space and complete renovations needed to make it accessible for theater crowds. The architect on the project is John Kudravy, who is located directly across the street from the Oldsmobile building. Required work includes adding more entrances, exits, and restrooms, along with parking lot upgrades for handicap spaces and accessibility. Plus, they’ll be adding in a concessions counter!

In the meantime, the collective is hosting shows at alternative locations around town while working on weaving their village of artists and performers into the community of Homestead. In particular, they hope residents will keep an eye out for their monthly variety show, an open-mic format for performers with any talent they’d like to showcase, open to new and old friends of Glitterbox alike. Tree shared that they look forward to connecting with more Homestead residents this summer as they grow their community in the Mon Valley.

Pittsburgh Sound + Image at the Eberle Studios during June’s Homestead Live Fridays. Image courtesy of Steve Felix.

Eberle Studios and Gallery Partner with Pittsburgh Sound + Image

Homestead is also home to Eberle Studios and Gallery, a venue that is so much more than their name implies. The Studios, located at 229 E. Ninth Avenue, contains art spaces including ceramic artist studios, a photography / film studio, and a fashion upcycling incubator.

“Eberle Studios was founded when artist Ed Eberle, a Pittsburgh native, relocated his studio to Homestead in 2012, in the old Elks Lodge,” explains Jonathan Eberle, Ed’s son. “There have always been several artists working in the building, but in 2018 The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts conference came to Pittsburgh, and we opened our gallery space for the conference. The experience of having so many visitors come to Homestead, to our art studios and gallery—it was such a positive experience that we decided to open up the gallery for more exhibits.”

Eberle Studios and Gallery during the NCECA Conference in 2018.

Ed Eberle also has a vision for artists who work in ceramics. “He wanted to create a quality workspace for artists to further their careers,” notes Jonathan. “Ed feels that artists need a good studio where they can do their best work. And that’s what we do.”

Though Eberle Studios has a focus on ceramics, the gallery exhibits a multitude of art mediums, including sculpture and photography.

Jonathan Eberle, who is a filmmaker and a Pittsburgh Filmmakers and University of Pittsburgh Film Studies alum, has woven film into the space’s offerings. A few years ago, he met Steve Felix, Executive Director of Pittsburgh Sound + Image, along with Steven Haines, the organization’s Director of Programming. Now, Eberle Studios serves as the exhibition venue for Sound + Image screenings. The nonprofit has a mission to introduce the region to artists—both global and local— who otherwise do not currently have outlets in Pittsburgh, and they conduct film screenings and preservation as well as operate pghcinema.com, which tracks and promotes all organizations hosting film events citywide.

At Eberle Studios, Pittsburgh Sound + Image events include films shown on their original 16mm reels, followed frequently by some form of audience participation such as panel discussions with the film’s artists or Q&A with Haines. The shows have limited seating, and Live Fridays events are very popular.

“I think the hands-on element, the tactile, analog element of what Steven does, his expertise with projection and archiving and the film medium as a physical medium, is very special—very rare, of course, now,” notes Felix. “I think that’s a big part of what people come out for. It is truly unique to be in the room with a projector, to hear that clatter of the reels.”

A lot of the films come from Haines’s personal collection, which he has acquired over the years from flea markets, but he also seeks out films held in collections that are maintained through various co-ops across the country. When Sound + Image borrows a film from a co-op, the rental fees go back to the artists and the cooperatives. Haines is eager to note how much this support matters. “By coming to our screenings, when we’re getting films from these co-ops all over the country, you are supporting this whole film ecosystem. It keeps a lot more human experts in the mix, being an analog film, because you do have to think about borrowing physical things.”

An art exhibition at KSD during Homestead Live Fridays.

KSD & The Radio Room

Located at 101 E. Eighth Avenue, KSD—Kindness Solidarity Design—was founded on the idea that tattoo studios shouldn’t be scary and intimidating places, and that the space they occupy can be used to showcase art, artists, and music in a communal environment.

“A few years ago, my friend Kyle Rybak and I decided to open up KSD & The Radio Room,” says Doug Lopretto, co-owner of the venue. “I had been tattooing for sixteen or more years, and I was kind of tired of the business the way it was run in other parts of the city, where tattooing is more of an assembly line versus focusing on quality over quantity. I had also worked in shops that were sometimes a little intimidating. I wanted to create a private space where people feel comfortable.”

At KSD, private sessions can be made with the tattoo artists by appointment only, with an emphasis on the meaning and artistry behind each tattoo, what they aptly refer to as “lifelong body art.” Though this idea isn’t solely unique to KSD, the space certainly is—their focus on the arts bleeds over to the gallery and music venue that coexist within the tattoo studio.

A performance in the Radio Room helped kick off the 2023 Homestead Live Fridays season.

Their building was once home to the WAMO and WAMO-FM radio stations, with strong ties to the local community. The KSD team dubbed the space “The Radio Room” as a nod to this heritage and are doing their part to continue the tradition of rooting their work in the community. For each gallery show, Lopretto encourages the artist to decide who the band will be when gallery shows are paired with performances. Because of this, the gallery has hosted a wide variety of art formats along with practically every genre of music you can think of, including noise installations, interactive video game art installations, and an oversized Theremin that visitors were encouraged to play.

Revitalized Spaces and an Ecosystem of Artists

This ecosystem of artist collaboration is an integral part of the venues who are rooted in Homestead, along with a belief in the importance of showcasing art and artists who might not typically have the opportunity to be seen. In the process, the partners are working hard to ensure they celebrate the culture of the neighborhood, including revitalizing some of the area’s historic buildings as shared community spaces for residents and visitors alike.

“What strikes me about the artists that work in Homestead these days is how involved they are in the community,” notes Jon Engel, the community and program organizer for Homestead Live Fridays. “Homestead is currently undergoing some seriously renewed energy in the arts, and there’s a lot still coming.”

Homestead Live Fridays continues on July 28^th.

– Drop by and visit with new neighbors, The Glitterbox Theater, as they keep the vibes fun and funky, offering up live paintings, circus-themed activities, and music. Learn more.

– Eberle Studios presents series of showcases on local independent filmmakers from the 1960s–90s, including “Essential Pittsburgh: Sheila Chamovitz” on July 28.  Sheila Chamovitz is the Pittsburgh director behind two important but seldom screened 30-minute documentaries. In the 1970s, with Skokie: Rights or Wrong, Sheila examined free speech via the controversial events of the ACLU defending a Nazi march in a Jewish neighborhood. In the 1980s, she made Murray Avenue: A Community in Transition, an elegy for the changing culture of the Squirrel Hill neighborhood.  Reserve tickets here.

– This month, KSD & The Radio Room will host a Makers’ Market, complete with local artists, crafters, jewelry makers, candle makers, print makers, illustrators, metal workers, face painting, vintage clothes, hand knit items, and more! View event details.

Amity Harvest Community Garden, The Forge Urban Winery, Golden Age Beer Company, Voodoo Brewing Co. Homestead, Eon Bar and Grill, Millie’s Homemade Ice Cream, ACORN/ANEW, Retro on 8^th and more are also participating in this month’s Live Fridays series.

Running monthly through October, Homestead Live Fridays occurs in multiple venues throughout the area’s Eighth Avenue business district, including gastropub Blue Dust, cafes Dorothy Six and Eon Bar & Grill, and local breweries Voodoo Brewing Co. and Golden Age Brewing Company, among others. Presented by Rivers of Steel and the Steel Valley Accelerator, the event series features local performers, art exhibitions, workshops, vendors, and activities on the final Friday of each month from 6:00 – 10:00 p.m. Grab a drink or bite to eat and check out some of the region’s best local live music! For details and updates, visit facebook.com/HomesteadLiveFridays.

Gita Michulka is a Pittsburgh-based marketing and communications consultant with over 15 years of experience promoting our region’s arts, recreation, and nonprofit assets.  Read her prior article on 2023 Homestead Live Fridays. 

Rachel Sager’s The Ruins Project, Part Two

This week we are sharing the second of three articles by Rachel Sager reflecting on The Ruins Project, a long-term collaborative mosaic art installation amidst the ruins of a former coal mine in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Rachel Sager operates the Sager Mosaics Studio, which is located near mile marker 104 on the Great Allegheny Passage and adjacent to The Ruins Project, which represents the rebirth of abandoned American coal country into a spiritual and artistic pilgrimage and destination for adventure seekers and lovers of art and history.

In her first article, Rachel introduced the site and the project and outlined her first rule for collaborators contributing artworks—they must Honor What Was. Rachel set in place a trio of rules the first year, before any of the collaborative art was begun. The rules apply to everyone. The artists use them to make mosaic in ways that preserve the delicate balance of her vision. The rules also help visitors to appreciate the story that is unfolding on deeper, more meaningful levels.

For today’s piece, she reflects on the second rule—to build relationships with the raw materials. The process reflects a sense of place—exploring creativity, storytelling, and mosaic traditions.

By Rachel Sager, Guest Contributor

Rachel Sager

You can try talking to a stone, but most people will tell you it won’t talk back.

And if it does, you may have other problems that this hammer can’t solve.

I will give you a cheeky little smile as I explain that stones do talk.

For the right listener, stones have stories to tell.

A girl can never have too many hammers. The traditional tools of the Roman mosaicists haven’t changed much in the last five hundred years.

The Search for a Stone

When happening upon the right stone, there is a fleeting moment when it seems that all things are possible.

Picture yourself walking along a riverbank. Head down, eyes focused. You have a goal.

Your goal is not simply to find something pretty (although you always leave room for that). Your goal is to find a stone that can be opened. You have been learning to cut things with your steel-tipped hammer and hardie (a chisel mounted upside down), and you want to begin the lifelong process of identifying what can be cut and what is better left alone.

You are not a geologist; you are a stone lover. You want to unearth the secrets. This walk along the river is your first date in what may become a long and passionate love affair.

You pick up lots of stones. You drop just as many.

You don’t realize it yet, but this first walk is about making the wrong choices.

You will fill up your bucket or bag or pockets with what you think are the right stones. You will lug them back to your workspace, wash them, scrub them, and lay them out in the sun. You’ll appreciate their angles and ridges.

You will think you know what they look like from these appreciating stages.

Stones from Touchstone Center for Crafts property. Photo by Kelley Knickerbocker.

But really, the best part is yet to come.

Cracking them open with your hammer is when their true nature is revealed because they have been rolling around in the air and the water and the forces of nature for so, so long that their outsides have changed. It’s like looking at a walnut: the green outer shell gives you clues as to what the dark, ridged inside reveals, but the clues take time to learn, and they can be tricky.

The Black Walnut

The inside of a rock is almost always a different color and texture from the outside. It’s a present from the past, waiting for you and your hammer to reveal its nature. Will it be sandy or smooth? Reddish or grayish? Will it cleave like butter or withstand your hammer strikes like a rocky vault?

With time put in, you will realize that the speckled, egg-shaped calling card of granite is not worth the trouble. It’s too hard on your hands and your hammer. You will learn that sandstone is a beginner’s joy and limestone is just difficult enough to cut that you may need help from a seasoned mosaicist to learn the tricks for working with it.

With enough time put in, you may come to give certain stones nicknames and personalities. I call sandstone humble and limestone sophisticated.

And then there is red dog. This stone deserves a category all its own.

Red Dog: The Storytelling Stone

We are always on the hunt for “choice” red dog, the kind that has black embedded into the insides and rosy reds on the outsides.

The imagining is one of my favorite parts. You let your imagination sweep you back up the river, where a stone has traveled to get here. Was it washed all the way from West Virginia? Did it break off from a giant monolith of sandstone to be washed here, today, for you to discover it?

Or was it once something else entirely? Red dog is the colloquial term for a byproduct of the bituminous coal industry during the decades that Banning #2 coal mine, now The Ruins Project, was in operation.

A coal miner during these times was paid by the ton, not the hour. If he couldn’t get his ton of coal out of the hillside and onto a car to be weighed, he very likely couldn’t feed his family. This working by material weight created an urgency throughout the entire process of coal extraction. From the diggers with shovels to the bosses wearing suits, it was all about the volume.

In their urgency, the men dumped anything that wasn’t coal along the riverbanks. Decades of dumping created small mountains of the black shale that was tucked up tightly against the seams of coal.

A miner was only paid for the coal, but he had to move the shale too.

A red dog flame to symbolize the fire that created it. By Ruins artist Julie Christmann.

These hills of refuse would catch fire periodically and burn deep inside—the kind of hot burning with no air that transformed the black Youghiogheny shale into incredible shades of red. All the colors of red from the Crayola box: burnt sienna, brick, copper, bittersweet, apricot, salmon, and even violet red.

The shale on the inside, the burnt-by-fire on the outside. Red dog is part geologic, part manmade. For The Ruins artists, it represents an opportunity to work with a beautiful, unique mosaic material that has history wrapped into its mysterious layers.

Building relationships at The Ruins is a bottomless bank of possibilities. We don’t go shopping at stores for our mosaic tesserae (the small pieces used in mosaic). We are more likely to find raw stone and transform it with our hammers in surprising ways.

Each artist has the freedom to translate their relationship to mosaic material in unique ways. Some use glass. Others ceramic. And many choose stone.

I will highlight two Ruins artists to explain.

East Meets West. Photos by Bri Santoro.

Anabella Wewer’s East Meets West

Classically trained mosaicist Anabella Wewer took her relationship building to astonishing lengths with the masterful East Meets West composition, built to represent the heat of the steel industry. Standing below it, looking up, one feels the connection between coal and steel.

It’s a perfect symbol to connect Rivers of Steel and The Ruins Project. The bituminous coal from Banning #2 was loaded onto The P and LE coal cars that would then make the many journeys north to fuel the Carrie Furnaces.

But looking at it and understanding it are two different things.

The artist wanted gray material. She needed a lot of it given the large size of her planned five-foot by three-foot composition. She also wanted to achieve a strata effect that felt like the depths of the earth. Anabella says, “pouring my own concrete made sense once I decided to make the molten steel look as if it was breaking through the concrete wall.”

The artist tinted and poured her own shades of concrete. In all, seven shades of custom-created tesserae help to make up the nuanced color changes in East Meets West.

The finished raw material.

It’s one thing to cut every piece of tesserae with a hammer, an already time-consuming process. It’s quite another to pour molds for your own handmade raw material and then cut them down into the small squares that are the building blocks for classical mosaic.

The results look like natural stone but are actually hand-poured and then carefully cut concrete.

Anabella lovingly added this extra step of work to the process—such a quintessentially Ruins things to do.

The Arrow is the anchor for the many animals that make up The Cave.

Wendy Casperson’s The Ruins Arrow

Wendy Casperson is a self-taught McKeesport artist has been slowly but tenaciously building a twenty-six-foot-long mosaic arrow in a room loosely titled The Cave. It’s a space dotted with native animals and represents a time before the people of coal. The Ruins Arrow is a symbol of the many indigenous tribes that once thrived along this river valley. The arrow is built from dozens of materials ranging from Marcellus shale, coal from The Ruins, river pebbles, stained glass, freshwater clam shells, iron ore pellets, red dog, sandstone, and possibly the most surprising of tesserae, deer teeth.

Wendy has become a mosaicist through building the many sections of The Arrow. She has adopted a phrase that personalizes the idea behind building relationships here at The Ruins. It has become a kind of identity for an artist carving a path into mosaic.

I am the Arrow.

Wendy takes great care in choosing each new section and learns how to cut and shape its materials as she works in situ on the wall. She forages the Youghiogheny River, both the banks and the river itself, and often collects animal skulls and bones to incorporate in the andamento (the flow of lines in a mosaic piece) of The Arrow. As a local artist, she has the luxury of taking her time as she builds relationships with each new chosen material.

The meandering blue line of smalti (colored glass or enamel) to represent the river is the one constant material throughout the composition.

The Ruins is Relationships

There are over 250 Ruins artists who take the time and effort to build relationships with raw material as they build their mosaic art for the giant cement canvas in the woods.

It is not lost on me that as the artists build relationships with stone and glass, they are also cementing friendships and professional bonds with me and with each other.

Each stone cut and laid into mortar is one more connection in a long line of andamento that makes The Ruins a one-of-a-kind creative force that is changing how the world understands the art of mosaic.

All images are courtesy of Rachel Sager. 

Rachel Sager, The Storytelling Mosaicist, has been making mosaic, writing about mosaic, speaking about mosaic, and teaching mosaic for over twenty years. Her signature forager and intuitive teaching styles have changed how mosaic is experienced and have helped build on the golden age that the art form is enjoying in these exciting decades.

As the owner and creator of The Ruins Project and Sager Mosaics, Rachel lives and works as an Appalachian entrepreneur in the hills and hollows of her hometown just down the river from Pittsburgh in Fayette County.  

The easiest (and most engaging) way to keep up with what’s happening at The Ruins is by subscribing to The Ruins Substack which is also where you can find the growing episodes of The Ruins Podcast, a collection of conversations that Rachel hosts with all walks of creative people who interact with her cathedral to coal.

She hopes you will join her in her quest to unearth optimism; some days with a shovel, some days with a hammer, and some days with a pen.

The Ruins is accessible through guided tours only. To make arrangements go to Book a Tour.

This is the second in a series by Rachel Sager. You can read Honor What Was, the first rule, and stay tuned for Rule #3  with more of The Ruins story.

Guests of the Green Building Alliance take a tour of the Carrie Furnaces that examines how the site is sustainably repurposed, May 25, 2023.

A Sustainable Look at the Arts and Grounds of the Carrie Furnaces

Recently, Rivers of Steel collaborated with the Green Building Alliance to weave two divergent narratives at Carrie—its industrial and the post-industrial stories—into a unified thread that reflects the sustainable approach our organization brings to the development of the historic site.

By Jordan Snowden

A Second Life, By Chance

Over a year of Sundays from 1997 to 1998, a group dubbed the Industrial Arts Co-op broke into the grounds of the Carrie Blast Furnaces, now a National Historic Landmark, and slowly but deliberately crafted a forty-five-foot-tall deer head structure out of discarded found objects—steel tubing and structural metals, copper wire, and rubber hose.

Called the Rankin Deer at the time, the artists were inspired by the way nature was reclaiming the abandoned site. It had only been a little over a decade since the former iron mill had been largely stripped by scrappers and left to languish, and already plant and wildlife were taking charge. The collective embraced that concept—one that brings to light human beings’ use of something for their own benefit, only to turn away when it no longer serves to be profitable—to showcase evolution and an inevitable return to nature.

They thought their art would be temporary, making it not for public consumption but simply for the artists’ sake. Their thinking was that the Rankin Deer, also known as the Carrie Deer, would be torn down and bulldozed over like the rest of the site eventually would. But the Industrial Arts Co-op, made up of George Davis, Liz Hammond, Tim Kaulen, John Latell, Joe Small, Tim Yohman, and Bob Ziller, was unknowingly changing the course of history and the fate of the Carrie Blast Furnaces. They were seeding the site with a second life.

Tour guide Andy Schneider orients the Green Building Alliance guests to the Carrie Blast Furnaces.

Sustainability, Multiple Ways

On a sunny Thursday evening toward the end of May, the Green Building Alliance (GBA), a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit focusing on supporting sustainable buildings and community, explored the post-industrial site, located in both Swissvale and Rankin, for a special tour merging the historical, industrial aspects of the Carrie Furnaces narrative and its art-rooted resurgence that Rivers of Steel has fostered over the last decade.

“Much of our work with various stakeholders involves nurturing both supply and demand of healthier, higher-performing buildings—and we love to use inspiration as a motivating force,” explained Leslie Montgomery, Vice President of Education & Communications at GBA. “One of our favorite ways to accomplish this is through building tours to show people what is possible, and often we’ll have contractors and architects showing people how they achieved their green buildings or owners / operators will describe their efficiency updates. We also really love to showcase historic properties and talk about how preservation plays into sustainability.”

Patrick Camut’s sculpture Stan, which features a fulcumb, speaks to how his grandfather balanced his life working in steel, sometimes quite literally when he drove to work with a coffee mug balanced during the ride. The artwork is now a permanent feature at the Carrie Blast Furnaces.

In the case of the furnaces, the tour not only spoke to Pittsburgh’s regional culture and history, alongside Rivers of Steel’s role in preservation, but showcased the Carrie Blast Furnaces as a shining example of one of the many ways a location can be sustainable without technical upgrades or significant changes.

“GBA does a lot of green building tours, a lot of times single buildings, but because of the nature of Pittsburgh, there are a lot of sites like Carrie that were once industrial and are now being repurposed that are of interest to us,” Montgomery said. “In the world of the built environment, when you’re reusing something that’s already there, that’s more sustainable than doing something new.”

This is true particularly in Pittsburgh, where many contaminated industrial sites were remediated into usable brownfields to be repurposed. One example is Hazelwood’s Mill 19, a previous steel mill location now being used for housing and commercial use.

“But at Carrie Furnaces, it’s so interesting because they’re just using it in its state, and they’re using it as an arts and cultural center, which is very unique,” said Montgomery. “Especially because it sounds like that’s what people went in and used it for.”

While graffiti writing and spray can murals are allowed in designated places, the Carrie Furnaces proper are off-limits. The historical graffiti at the base is being allowed to fade on its own.

Let’s Compromise . . . and Make Art Together

By the time Rivers of Steel began managing the Carrie Blast Furnaces, word had gotten out that some artists had broken into the dormant property and constructed a massive structure . . . and people from across the globe were interested in seeing it. At that time, in the mid-2000s, Rivers of Steel’s vision for the historic site was to focus on sharing its storied industrial heritage. The Carrie Deer added a different layer to the location and highlighted the multiple possibilities for what the site could become.

“The Carrie Deer opened us up to tell a post-industrial story,” explained Carly V. McCoy, Rivers of Steel’s Director of Marketing & Communications. “Carrie’s story doesn’t end in the early 1980s when the site went offline. As their ancestors had done before them, the next generation still came to mill, only they were looking for a new way to understand their place in the story. In a city without Big Steel, what was their destiny? Groups like the Industrial Arts Co-op, their graffiti-writer companions, and local youth, in general, had already begun their own reinterpretation of the site.”

Members of the Industrial Arts Co-op were not the only creatives to venture into the Carrie Furnaces over the years. Since its closure in the ’80s, the site became a hotbed for Pittsburgh graffiti artists to leave their mark on the former industrial space. When the site became a National Historic Landmark, this presented a challenge for Rivers of Steel. The culture of the site needed to be transformed to preserve the venerable structures. But instead of choosing to put up defenses, Rivers of Steel came up with a compromise: they fostered a collaborative relationship with the local artists. By offering up specific—and not historically designated—walls as canvases, the work of graffiti writers and street art muralists became a curated collection, featuring artists from across the globe. In doing so, they hoped to be able to curtail vandalism.

And it worked: stretching the length of the back edges of the Carrie Blast Furnaces are colorful, mostly temporary artworks, some of which are now third or fourth-generation pieces. Graffiti art became another part of Rivers of Steel’s unique draw; besides enjoying the murals, visitors to the historic site can participate in graffiti-based tours and workshops.

A clearing in the Iron Garden, called the Green Room, provides a place for reflection, and during this evening a place for a reception.

The Iron Garden—A Place for Reflection

As the tour concluded, the guests with the Green Building Alliance gathered for a reception in the shadow of Carrie Furnace #6. Along the eastern property line of the site, Rivers of Steel has allowed nature to (nearly) fully reclaim a stretch of land, with a path carved through it and a small clearing for reflection. Rather than planting in this garden, Rivers of Steel manages the natural growth with a light touch, allowing the story of nature’s resilience to shine through. Instead, the land has been seeded with sculptures and is currently adorned with an installation by Bradford Mumpower and Latika Sewell called Mini Greens 2. Dubbed the Iron Garden, the space resonates with the spirit of the Carrie Deer, a collaborative and organic journey that finds beauty in the unexpected.

“It’s an unbelievably interesting way to utilize the site in an additional capacity besides a bunch of nerds walking around talking about steel industry history,” said Andy Schneider, the tour guide for the evening.

Perhaps surprisingly to some visitors, the site is blossoming with connections between art, sustainability, and historic preservation.

Jordan Snowden is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh whose work has been published in The Seattle Times, Pittsburgh City Paper ,and elsewhere. She also runs @jord_reads_books, a book-focused Instagram account where she connects with other bookworms. In her free time, Jordan can be found with a book in her hand or DIYing something with her husband.

Read her previous story for Rivers of Steel. 

Educators with the Pennsylvania State Education Association walk through the Ore Yard during their mini-tour of the Carrie Blast Furnaces, on of three activities offered during their open house experience in May 11, 2023.

PSEA Educators Take a Field Trip to the Carrie Furnaces

By Jordan Snowden

A rare, cloudless seventy-degree day in Pittsburgh set the stage for Pennsylvania State Education Association’s (PSEA) Open House at the Carrie Blast Furnaces on Thursday, May 11. Hosted by Rivers of Steel, PSEA teachers and support staff working at Allegheny County public school districts had the opportunity to not only take part in an educational tour of the historic landmark site, but also participate in hands-on experiences with metal and graffiti arts.

The combination of offered activities is what drew Jessica Whiting, a teacher at Homestead’s Allegheny Intermediate Unit, or AIU, to the event. While Whiting is a Pittsburgh resident, she was unfamiliar with the industrial site and said she was excited to tour a place she had never heard of or been to, get her hands dirty, and have a souvenir to take home.

PSEA educators work on carving designs into the scratch mold block, which will later be cast in aluminum.

After chowing down on a generous spread of fruits and cheeses, chicken and veggie skewers, chicken sliders, and grilled cheese, and in between industrial tours of Carrie Blast Furnaces, educators took turns crafting aluminum “make and take” artworks and spray-painting plastic-wrapped posts that boasted the letters PSEA.

While the aluminum scratch-mold session was a popular attraction for its keepsake ability—tools like dental instruments and forks were used to carve an inverse design into a 4×4 sand mold before 1400-degree melted aluminum was poured on top and left to cool—the graffiti art area had a steady stream of visitors throughout the evening, making for an out-of-the-box, interactive learning venture.

Educator and graffiti writer Max “Gems” Gonzales adds some details to the interactive spray-painting mural during the PSEA event at the Carrie Furnaces on May 11.

“A lot of teachers assume that there’s this inaccessibility with graffiti art, like it’s not meant for them because it’s an art form that exists in the urban world,” explained Max Gonzales, a local street artist operating the spray paint station. Through hands-on involvement, Gonzales helped change this perspective while providing background and context on the art form’s origins. “It’s important to not erase the history of cultures of where it came from, Black and Brown kids in New York and Philly who fought to have their voices heard, who were jailed to have their voices heard,” he said.

By the end of the evening, the educators had created an eye-catching collaborative work of graffiti art, flush with bright spring colors, to match the pleasant mood in the air.

The finished PSEA mural. Photo by Jordan Snowden.

Every five years, teachers in the state of Pennsylvania are required to get 180 hours of professional development credits, thanks to 1999’s Act 48. These hours can be fulfilled with standard educational courses, workshops, or modules, but rather than spend a culmination of seven and a half days in school-like classes outside of the classroom, Alisa Murray, region field director for PSEA’s western region, is always seeking ideas for attractive, unique activities that will satisfy Act 48’s requirements while providing teachers entertaining, interactive experiences. So when she discovered Rivers of Steel and its offerings, she set up what she hoped would be a delightful end-of-year event.

“We look for cool, fun things that we can do for them so they can mingle together, get together with their friends, and get their hours,” said Murray. “This seemed like it would be a super cool event for teachers because it is Pittsburgh’s history, and what we’re thinking is a lot of teachers will leave this event, then go back to their school districts and probably have field trips as a result.”

Two educator pause during their tour to examine one of the many installed artworks onsite.

The activities presented to the teachers that day are the same experiences Rivers of Steel offers to visiting students. “Regardless of audience—educators, students, or the public—we are able to give context to our region’s heritage while engaging individuals in active learning that introduces them to new skills and artistic mediums,” explained Carly McCoy, director of marketing and communications at the local nonprofit. “The process of this learning is more about the future than the past.” However, even if educators don’t or aren’t able to bring their students back to Carrie Blast Furnaces, introduced skills like teamwork, creativity, community connection, and new knowledge of local history can be brought back and shared.”

“You see these places from the roads and bridges, and they look totally abandoned,” said Lindsay Cox, a first-grade teacher in the Moon Area School District. “So it’s a cool opportunity to come and see what they’re all about. The tour guide had a lot of great information. We learned about the history of Pittsburgh and why people chose to come here.”

Cox’s friend Aja Weston, an elementary special education teacher for the Mt. Lebanon School District, added that her favorite part was walking the grounds. “As a teacher, you hear about how things were run [in the industrial steel industry], you teach about these things as part of the curriculum, but actually getting to see it up close helps you realize what they were doing, how they were working, and what the conditions were.”

She plans to utilize what she learned in her life and functional skills lessons. “We look at different jobs and job skills, and it’ll be interesting to do an overview of jobs and to be able to discuss the conditions and the changes in how it used to be when you worked industrial jobs.”

Finished aluminum tiles cast by the PSEA group.

Educators and administrators who are interested in booking an educational visit to the Carrie Blast Furnaces can review our program offerings here, including Science & Industry at the Carrie Blast Furnaces, which explores job roles.  Please contact education@riversofsteel.com to schedule.

Jordan Snowden is a freelance writer based in Pittsburgh whose work has been published in The Seattle Times, Pittsburgh City Paper ,and elsewhere. She also runs @jord_reads_books, a book-focused Instagram account where she connects with other bookworms. In her free time, Jordan can be found with a book in her hand or DIYing something with her husband.

Members of the Pittsburgh Swing Dance Community show off their moves at Golden Age Beer Co. while the Boilermaker Jazz Band performs on a Friday evening in May.

Homestead Live Fridays 2023—A Summer of Music, Arts, and Culture along Eighth Avenue

By Gita Michulka

Homestead Live Fridays is set to kick off on May 26th, and this year the series returns with a particularly special nod to Homestead’s history—live music.

“Music is the core of this event, but also, as a medium, it ties so deeply into what Homestead’s community is,” explains Jon Engel, Rivers of Steel’s Archivist and Heritage Arts Coordinator and the community and program organizer for Homestead Live Fridays. “Homestead residents are very proud of their historical musical output—a lot of great jazz singers, a lot of great gospel singers are from Homestead. They grew up in Homestead, particularly in Homestead’s Black churches, learning to sing from other community members, learning to play their instruments from other community members, and sort of going off into those art scenes as musicians and becoming nationally renowned. For instance, Betty Davis, the funk singer—she was born in Homestead, grew up here, and actually passed away here last year. So there’s just this terrific history of musical performance here in Homestead and a terrific pride in that tradition.”

A celebration of the area’s musical legacy, Homestead Live Fridays has been adding an extra sizzle to the summer since 2019.

Rivers of Steel, which is based in the Bost Building on Homestead’s Eighth Avenue, started the Live Fridays series in 2019 as a way to stimulate interest in the Eighth Avenue corridor for local residents in particular and the greater Pittsburgh community, who maybe only ever equated Homestead with the Waterfront. Funded in part by the Steel Valley Accelerator, the monthly event features local performers, art exhibitions, workshops, vendors, and activities on the final Friday of each month from 6:00 – 10:00 p.m. from May through October.

Though music was always a piece of the programming for Live Fridays, this year Engel and the partnering businesses are particularly excited about drawing a crowd through a full season of dynamic events.

“Focusing Live Fridays around musical performance was both very practical and very meaningful to us,” says Engel. “What we found during the first few years of the series is that music especially is what drives people to the businesses. And that just makes sense when you look at who Homestead’s businesses are. A lot of them have performance spaces built into them already or are already connected to musicians. And we found that when we brought that focus and that idea to the businesses and other partners, they latched onto it, and have taken it and run with it to incredible places. We all found this purpose together, and it’s going really well.”

This idea of a recurring event that showcases not just a handful of Homestead businesses but the Homestead community as a whole has also struck a chord with the partners in and around Eighth Avenue. Venues aren’t just participating to boost their own revenue—they’re genuinely invested in lifting up the whole corridor and celebrating the community where they’re rooted.

The outdoor space at Golden Age Beer Co. is an inviting for socializing.

“At Golden Age Beer Company, we are thrilled to participate in Live Fridays as we see them as an opportunity to showcase our Homestead community by both increasing participation from our fellow community members and increasing visibility of our neighborhood to visitors from around the city,” says owner Peter Kurzweg. “One of the things that makes us so excited to be a part of Homestead and its renaissance is that we believe that it is happening organically, with stable home prices, and with businesses and people that represent a wide cross section of our diverse community. We believe that programming for Live Fridays should reflect those values, which is why our bookings range from bluegrass to jazz and include live bands and DJs alike.”

Along with Golden Age Beer, participating bars and restaurants who will feature live music during Live Fridays include Blue Dust, The Forge Urban Wine Bar, Capri Pizza & Brew Pub, Eon Bar & Grill, and Voodoo Brewing Co. Despite their close proximity, there is a spirit of collegiality rather than competition—a main goal of Rivers of Steel during the planning process.

“Helping the venues work together to create an event that is a benefit to all of the Eighth Avenue corridor—that’s the dream for this series,” Engel notes. “Really what matters is that we get everyone into a collaborative space together. It’s a dialogue, where everyone comes in with their own already developed skills and interests for their business and their organization. And then, you know, we either work together on some group idea or we are very respectful of each other and looking out for one another.”

And their collaboration pays off. The array of live music and arts programming is a big draw, and a benefit for local artists, too.

Voodoo Brewing Company’s Homestead Pub has added a dedicated space for local musicians to perform.

“Live Fridays have been a huge boost for our business and have been a great way to support local artists and offer entertainment for this community to enjoy,” observes Ray Vellky, Events Coordinator at Voodoo Brewing Co. “We’ve greatly enjoyed the opportunity to support local musicians and artists by offering our venue up for events and shows. In terms of the kind of music we’re bringing to the space this year, we’ve been casting a wide net across our events in order to represent a wide variety of genres and artists.”

Carl Valenti, who co-owns Eon Bar & Grill with Mike Reid, echoes these sentiments. “Live Fridays have been amazing for Eon and the area. Offering live music through bands and artists has brought some great energy. We have been able to see new faces from the area come in for these bands and really hope it continues to grow so we can continue to offer live music options. There are so many talented musicians in the area, we look for driven and diverse talent specializing in soul and R&B to book for our live music nights. Any way we can showcase and make it work for everyone involved—we truly enjoy doing it since there aren’t many small venues that are able to offer it at all.”

Eon Bar & Grill’s logo gives a nod to the area’s steel heritage, as its mirrored window reflect the Homestead Grays bridge.

Being rooted in a community with such special ties to the gospel and jazz singers it produced is not lost on these venues, either. Eon’s interest in booking soul and R&B acts, along with Golden Age’s interest in local jazz musicians, and Voodoo Brewery’s focus on local rock, provides unique aesthetics distinct from one another, but which all tie back to those shared roots.

And Engel is eager to point out that part of the magic of Live Fridays—what sets this series apart from other events in the city—is the Homestead community itself.

“The focus of this series is on all of the citizens of Homestead. A lot of those are local businesses, like restaurants, bars, music venues, and art galleries on and around Eighth Avenue. But even beyond that—the people who have a physical presence on the street. You get a lot of involvement from individual community members who just care about their neighborhood and want to do something cool in it.”

“People have this desire to participate even when it’s not directly related to their business,” he continues. “Homestead’s community partners all have such unique and creative ways of participating and of doing things that they want to see happen in Homestead.”

Heading into its fourth active year, the Live Fridays series seeks to strengthen and deepen the ability for local venues to take ownership of showcasing both the arts and the community, and the partnering businesses are jumping at the chance.

“We believe that Homestead can become a regional epicenter for the arts and for artists, and our commitment to hosting no-cover-charge live music (while also paying musicians well) every weekend is central to our mission here at Golden Age,” notes Kurzweg. “We love Live Fridays as it gives us an opportunity to promote our commitment to that cause.”

To kick off the 2023 Homestead Live Fridays series on May 26th, Golden Age Beer has booked The Shameless Hex, a string band based out of Pittsburgh whose music is a fusion of bluegrass, rock, and folk, all done in an Appalachian string band style. Voodoo Brewing Co. will feature a show by Crombie, a jazz / funk / Latin instrumental trio from Pittsburgh, and Eon Bar & Grill will feature live music by Dennis Garner Jr. & Tempo Noir featuring Ms. Tenaj.

KSD & The Radio Room will also be hosting a closing reception for Gary Henzler Allen’s art show, Microcosm, with live music by Akrasia, Joe from Creedmoors, Berry Breene & friends, and 3rd Set Jerry.

ACORN ANEW will host a community barbecue with live music by the Difficult Times Jazz Band. Amity Harvest Community Garden will have acoustic rock by Kevin Belonzi, and Duke’s Upper Deck Café will feature live spray painting by Scott Brozovich.

And at Eberle Studios, Pittsburgh Sound + Image will launch their Essential Pittsburgh series, which explores our region’s film history by spotlighting local artists and their films created in the 1960s through the 1990s, beginning with award-winning filmmaker Billy Jackson.

The Glitterbox Theater, Dorothy Six, Live Fresh, Juicery, Millie’s Homemade Ice Cream, and Retro on 8th will also participate in the 2023 Live Fridays series.

Kicking off May 26 and running monthly through October, Homestead Live Fridays will occur in multiple venues throughout the area’s Eighth Avenue business district, including Eon Bar & Grill, Voodoo Brewing Co., and Golden Age Brewing Company, among others. Presented by Rivers of Steel and the Steel Valley Accelerator, the event series features local performers, art exhibitions, workshops, vendors, and activities on the final Friday of each month from 6:00 – 10:00 p.m. Grab a drink or bite to eat and check out some of the region’s best local live music! For details and updates, visit facebook.com/HomesteadLiveFridays.

Gita Michulka is a Pittsburgh-based marketing and communications consultant with over 15 years of experience promoting our region’s arts, recreation, and nonprofit assets.