Evidence

The Evidence

EVIDENCE is “the available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid.” 

No surprise, this word is currently part of our political climate.

Just back from a month long sojourn in warmer climes, I laid out and examined the “Small Parts”   that I created while away – examining the evidence of my own life.

Leaf with Blue Hole

These little works of art- the woven shells, embroidered leaves and netted horseshoe crab shells – are physical objects that are evidence of a period of contemplation and curiosity.

But these concrete things are really a gateway to the unseen, the invisible.

Here I am reminded of what the Little Prince says

Rusted Chip

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

It is easy to get caught up in the evidence, the concrete and physical. Perhaps the truth lies in the invisible, not necessarily in the evidence.

Triple Take

detail of work in progress

Yowza….three opportunities to see my work.How about a road trip ?From Rockland, Maine to Cotuit, MA Cape with a lunch stop in Brunswick, Maine.Here are the details:Center For Maine Contemporary Art 21 Winter Street, Rockland, MECMCA Biennial  November 3, 2018 – March 3, 2019Sunday, December 2 | 3-5pm

WHO DO YOU LOVE?  -  “Join us as Biennial Artists share their art crushes—each artist presents three works of art by other artists that they love, and tells why. In this way, the audience is introduced to a wide range of art and gains insight into how artists look at art, how they take inspiration from the work of other artists, and how deep looking informs their own work. A question and answer period will follow the presentations.”

“Twisted, Twined and Woven”  Contemporary Fiber Art

HELP: Letter P

Cahoon Museum of American Art, Cotuit, MANovember 2 – December 22, 2018Local paper reviewCollected Works of Sarah D. HaskellMaine Fiberarts Gallery13 Main Street, Topsham MENovember 20, 2018  - January 12, 2019Be sure to check out the beautiful web page for Maine Fiberarts. 

 

Post Monhegan

Rust-paper-collage

As with all residencies – there is a ripple effect that takes place once I am home. It’s been 3 weeks since I returned from my 5 week stay out on Monhegan Island, a small Maine island 12 miles off shore.I could tell you how much I loved watching the light house beam sweep across the roof tops every night, or I could tell you about the day I hiked for 5 hours, or I could show you some pictures of the rust paper collages that I created.

Rust web on bed-spring

I could also tell you how I came to love the inner woods for walking, shying away from the drama of the cliffs and how I fell in love with the works of James Fitzgerald.But I think the best way to share about my time is to add a couple photos here — and then to wait.

Brewery-caps-and-black-bean-print

Wait for the tide to recede and rise a few more times. Wait for the moon to wax and wane few more months. Wait for my heart to settle. And wait for new works in progress to continue to emerge.Thank you for waiting along side me.

Witnessing and working. Observing and absorbing

Monhegan Artist Residence

I have the incredible good fortune to be the Monhegan Artist in Residence for five weeks this fall. In my proposal I wrote that “I will observe and document the forces of nature at work – not only on my handwoven/stitched cloth but on the island landscape and ultimately on me.”So I am here. And it is magnificent.I have been gathering items that I can use for rust printing on my handwoven linen and kozo paper. In the process of seeking items to rust print I have had the opportunity to meet some lovely folks who have opened their workshops, back yards and dump piles to me.But this is truly just a beginning. I am taking my time to sink into this landscape and this community. Just as the processes that I use to make my art take a long time, I too, will take my time to just be here. To breathe in the majesty and subtle shifts of this precious island.I regularly post images and reflections on Instagram and Facebook – so for more up to date info – please check out my pages. Thanks for all the support!! 

Patience

Letter L emerges from under the snow.

 Of all the seasons here in New England, Spring requires the most patience. This year Mother Nature teased us with unseasonably warm days in January….and then slammed us with a series of Nor’Easters in March. We had over 2 feet of snow dumped on us in less than two weeks!During one of those blizzards, Letter L blew off the tree where it had been weathering in situ along with letters OV ands E. I’ve been patiently waiting for the huge snow drift to melt. And  when it finally did… look what I found!

Letter L completes LOVE.

These indigo dyed weavings are part of on-going experiments that I’m doing with my woven fabrics. Recently, I have been curious about the aging and weathering processes of my textiles. For years I resisted these changes by framing, scotch-guarding and protecting my works from sunlight, dust and humidity. Now I am consciously subjecting pieces to wind, water rust and sunlight.I find this intentional abuse and breaking down of my “precious” fabrics confronts my own attachment to permanence and my futile attempts to stop the aging process within my own body.

Patience is inherent to the process of threading a loom.

If anything, these weathering and aging processes require patience. Patience is a skill that I have honed over decades. Both as a weaver and mediator, I have learned to be comfortable in the slow, methodical techniques that comprise the textiles arts.Now, as I watch the receding snow piles and the budding crocuses, I am comfortable in this waiting-space. Waiting for Spring, witnessing the metamorphosis of nature and blossoming creativity.

The heart, the voice and a vision.

Love: a visit with village elders

I am back from a five week pilgrimage to southern India. This is my third trip to Tamil Nadu, each time I feel a deeper connection to my own heart as well as the heart of the world. Even though I visited many of the same temples, the same ashram and the same villages – my heart and my eyes were opened anew.Back home in my studio I feel a stronger connection to my creative voice and vision. I know without a doubt that the depth of my connection to truth, love and reality while in India is playing out in my art work.

Sketchbook: A quiet time with the ashram cows

An invesigation of impermanence has captivated me for a decade and driven my two most recent community art projects.    This awareness of impermanence is part of a Hindu’s daily life – and makes the present moment so alive and expansive.So here I am home….with a heart that has had time for deep reflection as well as being broken open by the devotion and love of these beautiful people. I have a wide horizon of time to create, to make new art and give voice to these new stirrings in my heart. Stay tuned for works in progress and continued reflections on this trip!

The Ashram weave shed where they weave shawls and saris

Namaste ~ Sarah

The Button Project goes to NYC

The Button Project in NYC. Photo by Jin S. Lee, 9/11 Memorial

The Button Project in NYC

The Button Project a 9/11 Memorial

Seventeen years ago I designed and created “The Button project: a 9/11 Memorial.”  It was through the making of this piece piece that I came to know what it means to be a community artist.Last winter the National September 11th Memorial and Museum asked to borrow the piece from the the City of Portsmouth.The piece is  now installed in a special exhibit with three other pieces inspired by the events of 9/11. Needless to say – I am thrilled to have this piece here.All photos by Jin S. Lee 9/11 Memorial

In this time, in this place.

Threads on the loom

In this time, in this place.For everything there is a season – and it appears there is a timetable as well. This spring has been deliciously slow and very cool. This pace seems to fit with the way my recent art has been evolving.I spent all of last month working on grants – and now it is back to color, thread, patterns, lines, paper spinning, drawing and dyes.I am in the midst of setting up two looms to create a four panel piece that will include the hand spun Shifu threads from “Well Used, Well Loved.”I have dyed 12 yards of a deep blue- black that will be a ground weave for the four panels. On the two outside panels (6’ by 2’) I will have a supplementary warp to stitch down the Shifu threads in horizontal lines. The effect I am seeking is that of a letter or document.  The two inside panels (40” by 6”) will have the Shifu thread couched (stitched down) to the surface. The design is a pair of hands – a wide open palm and perhaps one hand in a mudra gesture.

Sketches for Well Used, Well Loved design

Spring into summer

George Marshall Gallery

Today is June 15th. We are almost at the summer Solstice – my favorite time of year. The peas are up, lettuce needs thinning and I smell the freshly mowed grass. Ah-h-h-h!Just a few newsy items – my work is at the George Marshall Gallery here in York until July 9th. The exhibit is Momentum XIV – honoring the recipient and finalists for the NH Charitable Foundation’s Artist Advancement award. I was one of two finalists.

Longley School Mandala Community Weaving

I was artist in residence at the Longley school in Lewiston this month. I love this Mandala Community Weaving woven in red, white and blue – and covered with the hands who wove it (mostly immigrants from war torn countries). This image feel poignant considering what is going on in our country right now.

Well Used, Well Loved Towel

“Well Used, Well Loved” my current community art project is rolling along with a closed Facebook group where participants safely post responses to my prompts and questions. We also have a blog about the project - please check it out! 

Now: Letters By Hand

Now: Letters by Hand

Now Letters by Hand An illustrated Inner Life26 letters stitched on antique linens over 22 monthsProject initiated in Tamil Nadu, India ~ January 2014.Completed in Rabun Gap, GA, USA ~ November 2015. Watch a video of the installation  

Back at home

Fall leaves on hand-woven linen

I am back from a transformational trip to the hills of northern Georgia. I had the good fortune to be selected as a fellow to The Hambidge Center in Rabun Gap, GA, where I was an artist in residence for 2 weeks.While I was at Hambidge I was able to complete “Now” Letters by Hand” – a 22 month project using the American Sign Language alphabet as a platform for inner reflection. This project is a 13′ by 3′ installation – so a photo of the whole project is a bit of a challenge. I will be posting a link to a  video link soon.En route to Georgia I stopped at The Bancroft School in Worcester, MA. I spent a day working with the Middle School to complete an installation for the school entry way. Here we all are at the end of a very successful day, sitting underneath the prayer flag installation!

Bancroft School installation

Now back here in Maine, I am diving into new projects as well as connecting with continuing projects. My favorite season is approaching – snow season – when I can settle inside my studio, warm and cozy while the snow piles up outside.Be sure to check out my Face Book art page – Sarah D. Haskell – and give it a thumbs up! Thanks! 

Georgia on my mind

Hambidge Center

I’m off to Georgia! I will be at The Hambidge Center in Rabun Gap, GA this month for a 2 week residency. I am SO excited and pleased to have this opportunity!

Installation materials

As I travel south I will stop for a one day workshop at The Bancroft School in Worcester, MA. Working with the Middle School, I will guide the creation of an installation for the school entryway portico. We will use marine buoy flags, ribbons with messages, wire, zip ties and markers to create a colorful and positive way to greet everyone as they enter The Bancroft School campus.Then I will drive south taking 4 days to travel to Northern Georgia. While down there I will be working on the series “Now” Letters By Hand”. This past month I wove ten yards of white linen to mount this alphabet on to. I also plan to hike, draw and just be available for new ideas and fresh insights. This is truly a gift of time and space.I almost to forgot to announce – I have been selected as a finalist for the NH Charitable Foundation’s Artist Advancement Award. Feeling happy and pleased!

eight woven, two to go

ten yards off loom

Mandala means circle

Mandala means circle

Mandala means circle in Sanskrit. A Mandala design always has a center – a core, just like us. A Mandala is always a symmetrical design that radiates out from this center or core….just like our personality radiates out from us. And the weaving on a Mandala is a spiral – one that keeps growing from this central core. And just like that spiral of weft that grows from the original start – the Mandala Community Weaving has continued to grow and grow.The Mandala Community Weaving is a project that I designed about 20 years ago – and it has grown and grown and grown…just like the spiral weaving. This spring the project has experienced two milestones.

Rock Creek Forest Mandala

First – with the help of parents,staff and students at Rock Creek Forest Elementary School (Chevy Chase MD) we created the largest Mandala yet – over 650 clothes pin people. It is so full of people – the weaving is a small inner circle. There is such power in this image – the strength of numbers, of community, of wholeness and diversity. Thanks RCF for making this Mandala with me!!The second milestone – the Mandala Community Weaving has gone abroad! With the help of Kathy Kaknes, a volunteer who traveled to Haiti this month, the project was presented to the Be Like Brit Orphanage in Grand Goave, Haiti. With over 60 children living, growing and learning in this community, along side many dedicated adults ~ their Mandala has a very special glow to it.

Haiti – Mandala Community Weaving

Making clothespin people helps us feel better.

The completed Mandala

Weaving with friends

Art makes us smile!

Be Like Brit Mission statement.

Haiti colors!

More Mandalas

The Bancroft School Mandala

After school volunteers help to assemble the Mandala

This week I was artist in residence at the Bancroft School in Worcester, MA. I worked with Lower and Upper School students to create a stunning Community Mandala. There was time with each group to have a conversation about the history and cultural connections with Mandalas. During one of these discussion, one student asked me how many Mandalas I had made. I could not answer, but it is in the hundreds.Recently I have been thinking about making my own Mandalas. After the one that I made for the Izzy’s installation, I have been so inspired by the practice of making these mesmerizing symmetrical pieces. Each time I work with students and talk about how the Buddhist Monks make sand Mandalas over and  over again as a spiritual practice, I think about what I might learn from this practice.Today it is snowing, and most likely tomorrow we will be snowed in. It just might be the perfect day to start my own Mandala practice.

Detail of the Bancroft School Mandala

Circles or spirals?

This Sunday in church the theme for the music, children’s story and the homily was about returning or rather circling about. The metaphor of goats versus sheep was used. Sheep travel as a flock or herd and usually stick together; while goats tend to be a bit more chaotic, independent and circular in their movements.The message was very clear, there is a wisdom to going in circles, to returning again and again to the familiar, and to the repetition of lessons. As a weaver, I love repetition, pattern and yes circles! As an independent self employed artist, I  guess I really am a goat.This week, I am returning to work on my master’s thesis. This project was dropped after Weston’s death. Now I am ready to return, to circle back, with a transformed point of view. There have been many doors closed in the past three months. Now I am ready to open one and step over the threshold.

"From the perspective of a pine tree"

Now here’s the thing, I embrace the concept that traveling in circles, of repeating lessons brings wisdom. But I do not believe that each time I return to the beginning that I am the same person. Each time I return, I am new, I am different. So I believe that in truth I travel in a spiral.This piece “From the perspective of a pine tree” addresses this notion. Along the right edge of the piece, there are several large fish all traveling upward. There are two smaller fish swimming in the opposite direction. There are two spirals. I won’t go into a long analysis of what I was thinking, but I suspect it is obvious. Be it a goat or a fish, we have a choice. Swim with the crowd or head out on your own. Celebrate the spiraling path that is at the core of learning and living in this world.   

Falling and flying

Prayer flag flying at Two Medicine Lake, Glacier Park, Montana

November has swept into my heart and my home. Leaves are falling. Rain is falling. The temperature is not falling however. It has been unseasonably warm for the past week, which is rather odd considering that we had a 6″ of snow fall about 2 weeks ago.

Prayer flag at The World Friendship Center, Hiroshima, Japan

Woven Voices prayer flags are flying all over the globe. This image of a flag at Two Medicine Lake has to be one of my favorites. We have sent flags to fly in France, Guatemala, New Zealand, Africa, New York/Occupy Wall Street, Japan and Italy. So far over 1200 flags of peace, love and hope fly world wide.  I will be offering directions to those who want to do this project on their own. Contact me for these directions.

Gil and his prayer flag in St Remy de Provence, France

I have been busy teaching in schools again this month.  Here is a fabulous Mandala Community Weaving done by the students at Woodland School in Weston, MA.

Mandala Community Weaving, Woodland School, Weston, MA

I am so proud of the hard work this whole school community put into this project.

All smiles for this amazing global Mandala Community Weaving!

That’s all the news for this rainy day!

Bursting, reaching, green

Yup. It is clearly Spring here in Maine. Actually late Spring.  But what the heck…it has been raining for about 12 straight days. And we finally have sun. So everything is bursting, growing, exploding and green.  Just want to share a few images from a residency that I did last month down in Connecticut.

Great Oaks School

This Mandala Community Weaving is the largest one that I have done to date. It has 500 clothes pin people on it, and is about 4 feet across. I am not sure how much it weights, but it is heavy! It has a special cross structure in the back to support the weight of the clothes pins. Isn’t it amazing?

Great Oaks Mandala detail

Sea Change ~ 5000 nautical miles, Cape Town to Barbados

Table MT in Cape Town with the traditional January "table cloth" cloud

On December 29th, 2010 I flew to Cape Town, South Africa with my brother Weston. We had signed on as crew on Bahati a 43′ Montevideo cutter rig sail boat from S. Freeport Maine. The skipper/owner of this boat is an old friend who is completing his 5 year circumnavigation of the globe.  We were in South Africa for about a month preparing for the trans-Atlantic passage as well as getting some time to sight see. It was hot and beautiful I especially loved the people of South Africa.

Cape Town, BoKap area where mostly Muslims live.

The Egg Man in Green Market, Cape Town

the Egg Man with the prayer flag on his shoulder

The Egg Man is a world known street artist from Benin who wears this ridiculously tall creation on his head made out of found objects and eggs! He is a sparkling personality and a wonderful “street ambassador” for all the tourists.I gave him a blue prayer flag, you can see it tied to his left shoulder. I loved his smile, so typical of the radiant grins we saw on many faces as we traveled. We also had the opportunity to travel up to Kruger Park, an immense  game preserve up near Johannesburg.

the giraffe that greeted us when we first entered the park

We spent about 5 days there sightseeing. It was amazing to be able to be so close to these large wild beautiful creatures.

an elephant who munched his way past us, ripping whole tree up for dinner

At the first game lodge that we visited, Monwana I gave each of the staff a prayer flag. They were so sweet, even though most of them did not speak English and had no real clue what these prayer flags were all about. Didn’t matter to me, I just had a feeling that this was a place and the people where the flags belonged.

the Monwana staff with prayer flags

After our safari we return to Simonstown, just south east of Cape Town where we prepared the boat for the 5000 mile voyage back to the Caribbean.

jackass penguins live in Simonstown

South Africa has a very dramatic coast line with tall rugged mountains that drop right to the frigid ocean

Diaz Beach, Cape of Good Hope

Before we left Africa, we went to the Cape of Good Hope. It used to be called Misery Cape, because of the storms and wind. It was very windy when we were there, making it hard to relax in the sun. Diaz Beach was amazing, you can see how big it is by the size of the person (our captain) walking in the distance.

sun rise

We sailed from Simonstown on January 26th, heading North West towards St. Helena, a tiny British island mid-Atlantic. On the 14th day, we landed at this rugged isolated island.We spent 4 days here, resting, visiting, provisioning, and making repairs. I will share more on my

dramatic skies over the horizon

next posting…it was magical.

approaching St Helena

Closing in

She who breathes

This week we had seven weavers in the studio. Women who came and breathed their energy into this project. I thought this prayer flag message particularly appropriate!Each flag is woven with messages that come from all over the world. Many voices for peace, for hope, for love.

One voice, One world

Each message is read many times before it finally gets woven into the prayer flag. Then the message is often fractured and the language becomes mixed with other language.This prayer flags reads: “I love music for awake people to be awake.” Interpret this however you like.

I love music

I see compassion and joy.

Forgiveness forever

Forgiveness Forever. Yes to that.This week we are closing in on the 100 prayer flag goal. Many many thanks to everyone for the support, words of encouragement and energy.

Weave Hope

84 prayer flags

Our world is moving like the sun; moving ever so slowly and steadily toward a new horizon.Happy Solstice ~ Sarah

54 and counting….

Weaving messages of peace

This week nine lovely weavers came to the studio to weave prayer flags.These weavers came in response to my challenge/invitation to the community to help me create 100 prayer flags to take on my travels to South Africa and crossing the Atlantic to the Caribbean.

What color is hope?

Some weavers came in the company of an old friend or two. Some came as individuals.

Weaving in the spirit

Some had never woven before, some had woven as younger people.All came with an open heart and open mind. Giving the gift of time and effort to unknown friends. So far we have 54 prayer flags woven and ready to go!

Hands for peace

Sewing the prayer flags after weaving

Many thanks to all who lend support through time, effort and voices.~ Sarah