Balancing on the Solstice

Here we are….on the official commencement of summer and the beginning of our days decreasing in sunlight (sorry to ruin your day!) This is the Solstice balance, balancing the light and the dark, the positive and the negative, the hot and the cold, plus for us on coastal Maine, the tourists and the townies!

CT workshop for families

For me it is the end of my school residencies and teaching. And today, it being almost 93 here in York, I went for my first swim!

Jim Wilson shows off his vintage reed making equipment.

Yesterday Ben and I went down to Central Falls, RI to visit The Gowdey Reed Co. I have started a blog about Jim’s family business as I am gearing up sales for them. Please check out this new blog, Gowdey Reeds, Heddles and Handweaving, where I explain how this company has been making reeds for 4 generations. The basic process has changed little, and each hand loom or industrial reed is made to order for the customer.Tomorrow I head back up to Haystack MT School of Crafts. I was up there last month, cleaning and repairing all the looms in the Textile Studio. Friday and Saturday, I will return to complete the job with a van load of parts from Macomber Looms. I think we picked the perfect week to be up there, as the temperatures here are going to be unseasonably warm.

My Woven Voices thesis with it's clamshell box

And here is a BIG TAH- DAH…drum roll……. I received my Masters of Art and Healing from Wisdom University this month. I am so proud of my thesis which is a series of hand-bound books that document and illustrate this four year global peace project.

Happy and proud boy with his self portrait for the Mandala

Thanks for checking out my website. I always love hearing from each one of you.Happy Summer!!~~ Sarah

Winter play and winter creativity

It has been an entirely snow-less winter so far.  I cannot recall a winter that has not only been so snow-less but so warm.  Last night at a non-profit board meeting the Chairwoman opened with the question “How you you feel about this winter? Do you miss snow?” The answers were as diverse as those attending the meeting. My answer was YES… I miss snow days. I miss playing in the snow. I miss the unbelievable quiet that a heavy snow fall makes as it muffles all other noises.

1st Izzy's installation

I have been involved with a new arts organization in Portsmouth called 3S Artspace. Last fall they put out a submission call for a winter long installation in a local ice cream shop that is closed for the winter. This collaborative project has three artists rotating installations once a week for nine weeks, culminating in a group installation for the final two weeks. My first installation was inspired by our road trip to Florida in January. Riding in the car ave me the opportunity to sky gaze for hours on end. I saw so many beautiful hawks soaring along the highways edge, and the sky was so wide and beautiful. Each installation is supposed to build on the previous one. I used the red sticks and blue background from the artist before me, stenciled the cranes and added more sapling branches.

2nd installation at night

My second installation followed the same artist who had built these trees out of bark and created this forest scene with glass balls inside the trees and rubber snakes. I added these balls out of Styrofoam and plastic spoons and forks. I covered the windows with paper snow flakes and red cellophane, plus added more rubber critters. The spoon/fork balls were on motors and slowly rotated. I felt wintery and bizarre to me.

beginning the mandala at Izzy's

My third installation was this past Friday, and I followed a different artist who is much more of a minimalist. All of the previous materials had been removed and the space stripped clean. She painted stylized mountains on the walls and hung painted pieces of bark (from the a fore mentioned trees).

the mandala completed

close up of the mandala, spoons, forks, twigs, oranges, styro-balls

So on Friday, I came in with the idea that I would take down the bark, but not remove it, and create a 6 foot mandala on the wall using any/all materials from previous installations. Here’s the result. I love it! I also wrote a short quote from Rumi along the edge of the mountains and their shadows.This installation will disappear on Friday when the third artist returns and creates her final installation. What an amazing process!This winter I am also bringing to an end”Woven Voices: Messages from the Heart”. Please check out my blog and learn more about the closure of this four year global community art project. I am in the final stages of completing my Masters of Art and Healing, with a non-traditional thesis on this project.

the last prayer flag

All is well, even without the snow.Namaste ~ Sarah

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.