Part 2: Weaving Herstory: Messages From the Heart of Sarah Haskell
Community weaving project from a public school in Lewiston, ME - June 2016. Photo courtesy of Sarah D. Haskell.
Part 2: Connecting Threads: Using Story and Weaving in the Art Room
By Jamia Weir
I have felt Sarah Haskell’s positive energy exuding from her being. Learning more about her art process and work with community makes me feel happy that she is able to connect with so many other people through her art, who can also feel good vibes and spread them further. She encourages people to be curious about their lives, to make sense of their own (hi)stories through the arts and to cultivate gratitude. From my journal while in the midst of working on this article:
Sarah Haskell is someone who stands out in my life…in my memory. She is a person who is so inspiring and motivating to me in so many ways—her artistic practice, both personal and communal—her teaching philosophies, inspire and motivate me. These are threads that connect us together. Both of us being artist-teachers, we have much to share.
During a 2013 residency in the Boston Public Library system, Sarah guided children and families to create paper prayer flags.
Sarah shared her paper weaving prayer flags lesson with me, where students weave one wish for themselves, one wish for someone close to them, and one wish for the universe or beyond, with the idea that it goes out in a ripple effect. This concept at the eco-minded elementary school in which I work is known as “Nested Systems” and is represented symbolically through the image of concentric circles. I have adapted Sarah’s project promoting positivity many times, for my own young students, this past year it was during our celebration of “Kindness Week.”
Sarah and I talk about using stories in our art classes with children.
I am really inspired by the ways in which Sarah uses stories in her art classes with students. I personally have found that when sharing stories, especially from my own personal life, or even my own personal artwork for that matter, students lean in a bit closer. Sarah uses stories for a multitude of reasons, such as to teach something students need to remember or learn, like joining two threads together when weaving with a made up tale of two snakes, or a folk tale for the inspiration behind an entire lesson. While we were in Johnson, Vermont, I sat in on the lesson when she was the guest teaching artist in the local elementary classroom at Johnson Elementary School. The project she did began with telling students the Greek myth about Philomela, who was a weaver, and her sister Procne. Sarah then had the students create a “calling card” and choose materials to use in a weaving, in order to tell the story of who they are, where they are and what is happening in their lives.
Pictured is the coverlet made by Sarah’s great aunt Zoe.
Sarah shared a piece of her own family history, and told this amazing story of her great aunt Zoe, who was a weaver in Maine in the 1800s. Zoe’s brother moved with his family to Kansas, taking the gift of a special coverlet that was woven by his sister, for his new baby, also named Zoe. One day, the Indians came across the river, picked up the baby, and stole the coverlet. Sarah has the coverlet that was woven to replace the stolen one, sent to her by a distant relative in Seattle who inherited it from her great grandmother, who was baby Zoe!
Sarah tells the story of her great aunt who was a weaver from the 1800s and more…
At a Connecticut elementary school, student admire their completed Mandala Community Weaving. Finding "yourself" on the weaving is an important way to validate being part of a community.
“Textiles are a such a huge part of our lives and some of these textiles are useful, like blankets and seatbelts and firehose, and some of them are beautiful, like tapestries on the wall and some of them are just these shreds, but they contain the family history or the town history and that’s their importance…it’s so much fun to talk to the kids about, “have you saved something? Have you saved a favorite blanket or an old tee shirt?” This cloth is embedded with your story. And so this cloth that I would hold up to them is embedded with my family story and I would tell them the story about it…”
Cloth contains history and emotion, and can connect one to the self and others. It can be the connection to one’s ancestors, to friends and neighbors and to the community on the micro or macro level.
Two details from a 4 by 6 foot tapestry woven by the students at the Milton NH Elementary School illustrating their village and its people.
Sarah believes that thread and weaving is a timeless metaphor for community.
“My definition of weaving is: separate elements that are put together in a structure…and those elements don’t necessarily even have to be vertical and horizontal---traditionally they’re vertical and horizontal---and I would hold up my hand and I would just weave my fingers together and say there’s a weaving. Along the same concept, families are separate elements that are put together in a structure, people ---people are separate elements, the structure is family. Traditionally, a family is a mother and a father and children, traditionally a weaving is vertical and horizontal, but we all know that you can have weavings that are triangular and that the things go at diagonal relationship to each other…we all know that families can be two men with children ---so the concept of separate elements being together in structure is the nugget for what I say weaving is. And it is a true metaphor for family, for culture, for society, for community…and we are separate elements and we’re together in this structure, whether it’s a family or a club or a community, or a town…so when I do these community art projects, the metaphor is not a big leap for creating these cloths that are built from either community objects or community stories or community created elements that go into the piece.”
Sarah discusses use of weaving as a metaphor for family and community in schools, we talk lesson ideas using the big idea of family and ancestry as a “genetic thread”
Sarah working with a young girl during a residency in a Connecticut Children’s Hospital.
What a beautiful concept she speaks of. This is partly why I personally am so drawn to the fiber arts, you can find so much symbolism and metaphor for life in things like weaving, quilting and mending. The textile arts lend themselves as teaching tools in art education seamlessly. I so enjoy using the fiber arts in a symbolic sense to help me make sense of the world and utilize my creativity, as well as to teach my students.
Link to the Mandala Community Weaving — http://www.sarahhaskell.com/gallery/mandala-community-weaving-2/
Part 3 will be released on Friday, December 6!