Local Artist Molly Sahm Creates Unique Mural & Mosaic Pieces Around Indy
Photographer / Michael Durr
Throughout her college career, Molly Sahm was honing a craft outside the classroom that is now as big a part of her life as the skills she was acquiring from her in-class studies.
While studying exercise science and sports performance at IU, and subsequently Marian University where she played for the women’s basketball team, Sahm was asked by her father Ed, who founded a string of popular Indy restaurants starting back in the 1980s, to create a few mosaics to be displayed at a couple of his eateries. She took to the task with relish, igniting a passion for an endeavor that she now works at on a near-daily basis.
“I always liked art but really started diving into it in college,” Sahm says. “I did take an independent art class in high school that got me going on mosaics. I started painting in college for extra money, and then when my dad asked me to do some mosaics for his restaurants I really got into it and it kept going from there.”
Before graduating in 2015, Sahm started posting images of a few of her paintings and mosaic works on her Instagram page and before long began receiving not only purchase offers, but also commission requests.
“I like painting but I would say mosaics are my favorite to do right now, but it’s a love-hate relationship and each piece requires a lot of patience,” she says. “I have to find a good podcast or something good to listen to to get me started, and then I’m off and on my way. With each piece I do now, I try to make it more difficult and have more detail.”
Sahm’s mosaics and paintings range from pop culture images to sports logos to abstract pieces, and she was able to put several of her works on display recently during art shows at Scarlet Lane Brewing downtown and One Up Arcade Bar in Broad Ripple.
“I’d like to do a show at a place like Liter House, and not just have other artists but incorporate bands or comedians around Indy,” she says. “Almost like a farmers market but for art. That’s something that I really want to look into later this year.”
No stranger to the family restaurant biz, Sahm fondly recalls working at several of her dad’s establishments growing up, and these days when she’s able to tear herself way from her art workstation, she heads to Half Liter Beer & BBQ Hall in Broad Ripple to help out her brother Eddie, who runs the place.
“I always worked at The Roost in Fishers through high school and a little in college,” recalls Sahm, who resides in Fishers but has plans to relocate to Broad Ripple later this year. “Half Liter is fun and has a great environment. I do art Monday through Friday and then work there on the weekends. I’ve always loved Broad Ripple.”
Sahm says learning the craft of mosaics has not only stimulated her own creativity but has made her more receptive to others’ ideas along the way.
“I used to break glass with a hammer and try to find pieces to work with, and that took a long time then I learned glass cutting, which has completely changed how I can approach mosaics,” she explains. “I used to reject a lot of ideas for pieces, but now I’m willing to try something that’s crazy detailed if people are willing to pay for the time and detail that it’s going to take.”
Not one to stay complacent, Sahm has plans to try new mediums in the future and apply her mosaic talents to unique surfaces.
“I definitely want to start doing furniture and try to mosaic some cool chairs,” she says. “Woodworking with frames and glass blowing are also interesting to me. I’ve never tried epoxying, so working with chairs that are functional and that I can mosaic is something I want to explore. Right now I’m just trying to get all the projects that I have lined up for people done but that would be a nice next step.”
For more info on Molly Sahm’s artwork, visit instagram.com/getyousahm_art.
