Full Circle

 Come see the project on display! Read the journals, handle the towels and soak up the 12' weaving. George Marshall Gallery, Lindsay Road, York ME. 

   

Well Used, Well Loved at George Marshall Gallery, York, ME until July8, 2018.

The Eight Journals on display and available to be read.

The 8 towels and journals.

Towel III caretakers Andrew and Bethie.

Text into textile

Panel #1 detail

Panel #1 is off the loom. The subtle changes from thread to thread is mesmerizing. This panel is 6' tall by 2' wide. Be sure to zoom in to get a closer look at the shift threads and hand-dyed warp.

Panel #2 is in process - photos below.

If you look very closely you can see the lines of text/writing on the threads. Each writer added color and drawings to the paper prior to spinning.

Panel #2 detail

Second panel in progress

Trials and tests - all in a day's work.

Last month I had the good fortune to be in residency at the Vermont Studio Center. I had a bright

Out my studio window at VSC

spacious studio, 3 meals a day, a bedroom in a warm house and  an inspiring community of 50 other artists. My time was my own - to sew, weave, draw, spin, or read, to go out for a walk or X-ski -- and ultimately to dig deeply into my creative work.


As I have noted on my website blog I had the privilege of meeting a few visiting artists who came to my studio to discuss my work. It's been decades since I have had the opportunity to have my work reviewed by another artist.


I took to heart many of the comments and feedback - and got a bit swayed this way and that by different sentiments and opinions. The result is that I came to know my own voice, my own vision in a much stronger capacity. At one point I was ready to let the Shifu threads from participants just be thread wound on a spool of some sort.

Last week I had the idea to weave a small square using Shifu thread for both warp and weft. I wove it on this cute little loom just perfect for this trial.


And now I am even thinking of setting up a loom to sample a simple structure where the threads just float on the surface of a background weave -- essentially accomplishing the same thing that the spools would offer -- but with more structure and I believe a stronger presentation.


This all goes under the roof or trial and tests - to take risks is a vital step in creating art. To have the courage to try something out of one's familiar territory -- and then to assess if it is successful or not -- all of this is essential to making good art.


So stay tuned my friends -- I'm working.

"I'm my cat's dishtowel"

I am digging in to each of the 8 Journals - reading each one - selecting favorite passages to copy on to Kozo paper for spinning as well as transcribing these passages to my lap top for future reference.

Here are some beautiful words from journal #III.

"I feel no moment slows down enough to become well-loved. My things grow well-used without my noticing them. Is that a form of love? Trusting a thing to be there for you without acknowledging or thanks? That trust, that faith, is a way to love?”“Maybe it’s a way we allow children or pets to love us. I’m sure that’s how my cat feel about me. She loves me by allowing me to work thanklessly for her. I’m my cat’s dishtowel.”

Honestly - if I had the time and energy -- I'd copy every word and illustration in each journal. I feel so honored to be able to step inside your head and hearts as I sit with your responses to the prompts. 

Patience and perseverence.

    Today the last towel and journal from the Linen Team arrived back here in York. It was worth the wait.

Towel #V hard at work.

      Towel #V spent 8 months being well used and loved in a Navajo Nation school in Arizona. Journal #V is busting at the binding with life, text, images, beads, drawings, art, memories and stories.
    As I flip through the pages of this journal my heart feels so full with gratitude. THANK YOU Mrs. Wilson's art students!!

Towel #V has arrived back in York.

Worth the wait.

    Now that all the journals and towels have been returned, I am still hopeful that a few more of you Paper Team folks will send me your papers. I will happily spin whatever you have to offer me.
    During these dark months ahead I will design and create a piece that incorporates these spun papers.
    Now more than ever I believe in the metaphor of weaving as an illustration of community - and specifically of a balanced plain weave as an illustration of democracy. We are all part of the same cloth.
   I am still seeking a location to install the completed project.
With much gratitude ~ Sarah

Gathering, Reflecting

    For those people who make art -- you know this time period.
If I were a hen -- I'd be sitting on my eggs.
Contemplating, keeping them warm, inspecting them every new and then.

Well Used, Well Loved - Journals and towels

    Well -- here I am -- exhibiting hen-like behavior. Not actually sitting on this stuff I gathered from "Well Used, Well Loved" - but contemplating it.
     Examining it, reviewing it. I am inspired by the stack of journals that were so lovingly created by the linen team households.
     I am awestruck by the depth of thoughtful writing and drawing that the paper team created. The Shifu spun threads from these kozo papers are seeped with spirit.

A response to Prompt #9 "Soft Matter"

     Entering into these dark winter months ahead, I feel the poignant potential of these materials.
    This time of waiting, sitting, listening and reflecting is a critical step in the art making process.
So like a hen,  I'll just sit here for now.


    Thanks for waiting with me.


Shifu spun threads waiting to be woven.

Beginning from this end

handspun kozo paper from the mountains of CO

 "What we call the beginning is often the end.

And to make an end is to make a beginning.

The end is where we start from"

       T.S. Eliot from The Four Quartets

And here we are - the end of the first phase of "Well Used, Well Loved" our community art project where we have explored age, beauty, loss and love. It is, however, just the beginning of unraveling, examining and reflection on what transpired over the past nine months.

Towels, journals and papers return to the studio

Our well used and loved towels are arriving back here in the studio.

Our creatively expressed papers have come back as well. Some kozo papers arrived in spun paper form and others await my hands to turn them into thread.

My own summer was rather eventful - as you might note from my last blog posting. Add to the loss of my own well loved Mother - the addition of a new daughter-in-law in a big family wedding in our back yard.

Kozo spinning lesson

I am blessed to live a creative and busy life - filled with loving family. And now it is time to pour this love back into "Well Used, Well Loved."

Beginnings and celebrations

Well Used, With Love

Her well used, with love hands.

If there is one object that we can observe that is well loved and well used - it would be our hands. I mentioned this in the last post and the last project prompt.

My mother with her beautiful hands slipped away on the silvery trail of the full moon on June 20th at 9:10 PM.  Flying across Casco Bay, right out the Hussey Sound, she sailed towards a new horizon.

I photographed and drew her hands her last few days. It has been a distinct privilege and true joy to be her daughter - she was a true gift. I feel like I am just beginning to know her.

Me and Mom Summer 2012

Behind the couch

Towel III. Lurking behind the couch.

What lurks behind your couch? Between the cushions, hidden away? Is it something that you intentionally hid there to avoid confrontation? Or is it something neglected?  Or simply something forgotten in the busyness of life?  

In our Well Used, Well Loved project we are on prompt #8: which examines the connections between beauty, economics and impermanence.

• What connection do you see in your own life between your economic survival/well being and your age/beauty?? Are you in a profession that requires a certain maintenance of image/beauty?
• What connections do you see in our culture between economic survival/well being and age//beauty?

 In a manner - this is something that gets stuffed behind the couch - not talked about - but when the topic is brought out to the light - I am not surprised at the energy that it consumes. Just ask any woman of a certain age about her choice to color or not color her hair.

In reality though, I think hair coloring is just the surface of this topic.

I am curious about the conversation that lurks behind the cushions.

What do men have to say about this prompt? 

What lurks behind this topic?

Becoming well loved

Tea dyed paper hanging

This is from one of the Paper Team participants - sharing her process and her beautifully transformed paper ~~

"I admit I was cowed by the beautiful paper that people were weaving. I don't decorate paper....oh, unless you consider tea dying....OK, maybe I do. SO, I did. I used the paper I wrote on and the paper I hadn't yet written on. Some of the text transferred and the paper turned translucent. Still drying but I am so glad to have been "pushed" into thinking outside my own particular box. The paper is becoming, ever more, well used and well loved."

The part of her story that I really connected with is when she compares her paper efforts (her work) to the those of others.

This is the very same trap that I fall into.

I compare myself to others, measure myself with someone else's standards,  -- and guess what?? Whenever I do this - I fall short - I just can't measure up. I feel less than - unworthy.

In an effort to break this habit, I am slowly re-patterning myself.
Perhaps this will be a life long project - but I am committed to becoming well loved (by me!).

Thanks for sharing your tea dyeing story!

Sarah

Our connective tissue

Towel II cools with the bread.

As a weaver and thread enthusiast, I am well aware of all the metaphors that underlie my work.  One of my current passions is thread as connective tissue between living organisms - the element that binds you to me, binds cultures throughout history, binds seemingly disparate tribes. Sort of gluten perhaps?

And yet sometimes our threads do not connect - we have different points of view on the same issue. This is where conflict could arise. But what if rather than conflict we simply nodded our head - and agreed to disagree? Then the connective tissue that binds us together is unbroken.

"Well Used, Well Loved" has a closed Face Book group - where we share our thoughts, response to the prompts and the photos. This is a safe place for our participants to be vulnerable and share ideas, opinions - each one unique. I, for one, have had my eyes opened to feelings that are quite different than my own. 

We are on Prompt #7 "The Dark Side"

For two months we have examined and reflected on different aspects of using and loving.

This week I would like to explore what might be considered the dark side of this topic. It’s a place that some might shy away from – with all good reason.  And yet, to know and understand something – we must be aware of its opposite.  In this case, what might be the opposite of “Well Used, Well Loved”?

Towel VII helps with Easter eggs

In yoga class, sometimes my teacher will have us exaggerate the opposite of a pose – for example if she wants us to relax and drop our shoulders – she asks us to shrug them up, way up to our ears.  And then we dip our shoulders back down with new awareness of both positions. As many philosophers query – how can we know sunshine without knowing shadow?

These opposites are an integral part of Yin/Yang philosophy, Bali Hinduism and many other spiritual traditions.  Perhaps the deeper we explore both sides, the less obvious is the line between “black and white". 

PROMPT #7

• Do you see an opposite to Well Used, Well Loved?
• Do you want to explore this opposite side? 
• If so, what do you see is the opposite of Well Used, Well Loved? 

 As always – there are NO right answers to these prompts. And they are very personal. 

To share them is your choice – not a requirement.

I am so very grateful for your companionship on this journey of inquiry.

Here are two responses: one visual, one written ~

Visual response to Prompt #7

"I can't seem to shake the last prompt regarding opposites, darkness and light... it follows me through my day and even seems to be stalking me in my sleep. Clearly something, I have not given enough consideration to, is seeking my focus and attention. As I sat staring at VIII on my kitchen counter this morning I wondered... is she a continuation of VII and all the woven and numbered towels before her? Cut from the same cloth, but with her own unique sewn and stitched edges. That's when it hit me.... the idea and nature of EDGES is what has been insistently prodding me. Edges, transitions and the nature and power of something to be itself and at some point (visible/invisible/tangible/intangible) become/express something else. It's time to grab some paints and stay tuned to what is bubbling up from the edges and transitions of the dark woods I am about to wander through."

So many threads

Towel V gets wet and messy with a ceramics class.

    I've been away from home for a spell - and there are so many photos and stories that I want to share about what's gone on in this project!! I will be breaking it up into a few blog posts.
    Our 8 Well used, loved towels are out in the world - living large with individuals and families, a classroom and households from England to Arizona and Oregon.
    Our 38 paper team folks had their spinning workshop

kozo paper before it becomes thread

this week. Soon I will have a tutorial for those who could not join our workshop.
   I am in the thick of writing a grant to fund this project for deeper exploration. All is well - I just need to catch up on some news here!

Towel II helps clean up.

    Many of you are contributing the our closed FB group - and I am delighted to see that the threads of connectivity are weaving a tight web.

   That's it for today - back to grant work!

I'll do my best to keep posting your images and stories.

Peace, Sarah

Towel VII helps with birthday confections!

Uncovering the connections



Periodically I pose a question or some point of reflection. Here are some words that folks have shared:

"Each week as I ponder our prompts, I fall deeply into my head, becoming reluctant to post. This afternoon I walked into my studio and found some threads from a recent project, lying on my work table in the shape of a heart. I taped them to my journal and these words came forth."

"I realized today that I might actually be a bit sad to send VIII back at the end of this project, the connection she symbolizes is to me like a link to an old friend being newly remembered. Ahhhh."

"I would describe my relationship to my body as well used, but until recently not well loved. In truth, I spent the better part of fifty years "thinking" I loved my body. "Thinking" I understood the nature of our relationship, "forcing" my ideas about how I should look, act, and feel, "meeting out" my own sense of timing and rhythm, and "dictating" my ideas about what I should eat, drink and do upon this aspect of my Self. But it wasn't until I journeyed through the dark under...ground of cancer that I came to be open enough, to see, know, listen to and love my body as my most faithful and true consort/companion."

journal writing with a well loved pen

The writings and drawings on the kozo paper will be spun into thread and woven into a community art piece.  The writings and drawings in the journals will be shared in an exhibit this fall, along with the 8 hand-woven well used, well loved dishtowels.





Off they go into the wild blue yonder!

One last look at the towels.

Today I went to the post office and shipped off the eight towels and journals to the linen team. The Kozo paper has arrived for the Paper team - so tomorrow I'll start to prepare the packets for this group.

I continue to be surprised and delighted by the response to this project. I have had over 45 people request to be involved in the project. There will be over 40 people involved on both teams (paper and Linen).


I have asked participants to contribute to this blog - or to email me and I'll share their news. So stay tuned for more news - the exploration into age and beauty has begun!

Towel and journal ready to travel.

Ready to ship.

The projects has legs!

I have received over 40 requests to participate in this project!

Today I emailed the two groups that will be participating. I'll keep the information fresh as this unfolds.

The heart of "Well Used, Well Loved" (WUWL)  is an inquiry into  thoughts, feelings and reflections on age and beauty.

From its inception this community art project has had two legs - The Linen Team: which reflects on age and beauty through the use of a hand-woven linen towel and  The Paper Team: which records personal reflections and conversation around age and beauty on Japanese Kozo paper that will eventually be spun into thread and woven in to a textile art work.


NEWS FLASH!! Well Used, Well Loved has received grant funding from the Artists Resource Trust a fund of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation! So now the project can really fly on these two legs! Thank you to the A.R.T and the folks at the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation!!

In one spirit ~ Sarah

 

Project ready to go! Seeking 8 households or individuals!!!

Towels and journals ready to go!

Well Used, Well Loved

A community art project that explores age and beauty

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Will you consider joining me in this reflection on age and beauty?


     I am seeking 8 individuals or households to "adopt" a hand-woven linen towel to use for six months. You will be asked to record periodic reflections and observations in a small journal that will be provided. Each site will be invited to have a "kitchen table conversation" with me at least once during the time period.
     At the end of the six months, I will collect the used towel, exchanging it for a new towel as a thank you for participating in the project.
     The eight Well Used and Well Loved towels will be the centerpiece for an installation grounded in an exploration of aging and beauty.     The journals (or text from them) will also be a part of the final installation.
     If you are interested I will ask you to sign a participation agreement. You will agree to use the towel, to communicate during the project's 6 months, to write in a journal, to return the towel at the end of six months.


Please visit my website for more info.
http://sarahhaskell.com


Please contact me if you are interested in participating in this project.


Thank you!