Summer Sessions

2/BASKETS

Making Connections

Control Freak by Lissa Hunter, 2007. Basketry and painting, 34" x 27" x 3".

Basketry techniques tend to be based on repeated, mechanical connections—stitches, twists, overs, and unders—of flexible materials such as splint, grass, and bark. Using a variety of traditional and nontraditional materials, we will develop our own techniques based on repetitive connections to create forms. Think of stapling, riveting, binding, and notching as only the beginning of an exploration that will include experimenting with equipment in Haystack’s fab lab. Central to the workshop will be the development of your own working process that allows for optimizing both creativity and technical proficiency. For basketmakers and anyone interested in transcending the tedium of additive processes. Some basketry skills helpful but not required.

LISSA HUNTER is a studio artist, living and working in Portland, Maine. She received BA and MFA degrees from Indiana University. Her work is exhibited internationally and is in the collections of the Museum of Arts & Design, New York; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC; and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, as well as numerous corporate and private collections. Lissa Hunter has enjoyed teaching and writing as part of her practice for over thirty years. An essay, “You Had to Be There”, is included in Vision & Legacy: Celebrating the Architecture of Haystack, published in 2011. lissahunter.com

2/BOOK ARTS

Artists’ Books/Evolving Book

Ancient Mariner (essay by Roger Angell) by Charles Hobson, 2009. Limited edition accordion book; Accordion fold, digital images, model sailboat sails, and maritime charts, 15" x 11" x 1 1/2".

Workshop participants will develop and build on creative ideas using the artists’ book as a medium—whatever your discipline, re conceiving your ideas as an artists’ book will expand and enrich your understanding of those ideas. Students will examine the way in which sequence, flow, word and image, and structure are special characteristics of an artists’ book and how these can uncover new insights into one’s creative interests. Special attention will be given to the relationship between word and image, so students will be encouraged to bring poetry or other creative writing, either their own or by others. The workshop will include demonstrations and assignments building on basic book structures. All levels welcome.

CHARLES HOBSON is an artist who has worked with artists’ books
for nearly twenty-five years. Usually following literary or historical themes, his books have covered topics as diverse as famous couples who met in Paris, poems by Billy Collins and W. S. Merwin, and Mark Twain’s imaginary diaries of Adam and Eve. Charles Hobson has been a member of the faculty at the San Francisco Art Institute for over twenty years and his work is in the collections of the National Gallery, London, and in New York’s Museum of Modern Art, New York Public Library, and the Whitney Museum. Stanford
University in California recently acquired his archive. charleshobson.com

2/CLAY

The Sensory Language of the Hand: Building and Glazing

with Earthenware

Tablet: Garden Fence by Holly Walker, 2011. Tabletop or wall mount; Terracotta, slab, pinched coils, hand painted slips and glazes, inlaid glaze, 11" x 9" x 2 1/4".

Allow the tactile mark of your hand to take precedence in your work. When building form with coils, pinching, and hand pressed slabs, the resulting texture is a direct reflection of the gesture of your touch. Hand painted surface techniques accentuate, delineate, and personalize the geography of form. In this workshop we will focus on serving pieces and tableware. Numerous decorative techniques will be explored with the aim of creating intriguing spatial relationships between forms and their surfaces. Discussions will include various strategies of creatively gathering and embodying sources of inspiration, and supporting clarity of vision. All levels welcome.

HOLLY WALKER is a full-time studio artist living in Randolph, Vermont. She received a BFA in Painting from Ohio University, and an MFA in Ceramics, with a minor in painting, from Louisiana State University. Her work has been in numerous exhibitions, most recently at the Parkland Art Gallery’s National Biennial Ceramics Invitational in Illinois; The Clay Studio, Philadelphia; Charlie Cummings Gallery, Florida; and Art of the Pot invitational in Austin, Texas. Holly Walker has taught at Penland, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and RISD, and formerly served as Director of Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in Maine. Her work and writing have been published in numerous ceramic books and Studio Potter Magazine. hollywalkerceramics.com

2/GLASS

Advanced Glassblowing

White Reticello Urn by Danté Marioni, 2011. Glass, greatest height 43". Photo by Russell Johnson.

This workshop will focus on traditional Venetian glassmaking techniques from an American studio glass perspective. Participants should be prepared to work together harmoniously in teams. There will be an emphasis on form, though color and patterns will be addressed. Students should bring ideas with them but should also be open to trying something completely different. There will be lots of dialogue in the relaxed, casual environment Haystack is famous for. Minimum of two years glassblowing experience required.

DANTÉ MARIONI comes from a family of artists and began blowing glass at the age of fifteen. By age twenty-three he was an independent studio glass artist exhibiting nationally. In 1987, he won a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation award and was a featured Young American at the American Craft Museum. Danté Marioni has taught and exhibited his work internationally and his work can be found in many private and public collections including: the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Japanese Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia; the National Museum of Art, Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; the Corning Museum of Glass, New York; the White House collection of American Crafts, Washington, DC; the National Museum of Stockholm, Sweden; and the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia. dantemarioni.com

2/METALS

A Potent Pair: Form and Color

Three by Helen Shirk, 2008. Copper, patina, colored pencil, formed and fabricated; 16"–19" tall.

Color’s ability to manipulate the perception of and response to 3D form is a powerful ingredient to explore in metalwork. Its transformative character can be strong or delicate, worn or immaculate, seductive or aggressive. Many forms and processes will be experimented with during the session. Demonstrations will include hammer-forming, texturing, soldering, cold connections, and methods of surface coloration (prismacolor pencils, chemical patination, torch-fired enamels, and porcelain paint). Students will work in malleable copper to develop combinations of form and color that give power and presence to their metalwork in both small and larger formats. Basic sawing, filing, and soldering skills required.

HELEN SHIRK is Professor of Art Emerita, San Diego State University, where she taught jewelry/metals for thirty-five years. Awards include a Fulbright grant and two National Endowments for the Arts grants. Helen Shirk is a fellow of the American Craft Council and her work is included the Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim, Germany; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; National Gallery of Australia; Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Texas; Mint Museum of Craft + Design, North Carolina; Oakland Museum, California; and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Her career as an artist/educator was the subject of articles in Metalsmith (2011) and Ornament (2010).

2/MIXED MEDIA

From Form to Fruition

Red Top on Box by Mark Hartung, 2008. Found wooden box, copper, and vitreous enamel, 6" x 4" x 10".

Where do ideas begin? From a recycled coffee can, a poem, a word, a scrap of wood? Considering what we experience daily and through the investigation of everyday objects, students will reinterpret basic forms and experience into a series of projects that will be comprised of toys, tools, sculptures, and more. Simple, traditional and nontraditional methods of fabrication and surface treatment, associated with varied disciplines, will be introduced and employed in the production of objects. Students are encouraged to collect and bring personal objects of interest as well as collect objects to base ideas on while at Haystack. All levels welcome.

MARK HARTUNG has been making mixed media objects since 1989. He received a BFA in Glass from Kent State University, Ohio. Awards include multiple individual Artists Grants from the Ohio Arts Council. Mark Hartung has had varied work experience outside of his personal studio, including his current employment with Heather B. Moore Jewelry located in Cleveland, Ohio. His work is exhibited frequently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show and the Velvet Da Vinci Gallery in San Francisco, California represents his work. markhartung.com

2/VISITING WRITER

ELISABETH TOVA BAILEY’s natural history/memoir, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating (Algonquin Books, 2010), recounts her year-long observations of an individual woodland snail. The book received a 2010 National Outdoor Book Award in Natural History Literature, a 2011 John Burroughs Medal Award for Distinguished Natural History, was selected as one of the Best Books of 2010 by the Huffington Post, and as a top ten Science & Technology title for 2010 by the American Library Association. Editions have been published in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, and translations are forthcoming in China, Korea, Japan, and Germany. Elisabeth Tova Bailey lives in Maine. elisabethtovabailey.net

The Raw Materials of Writing: Letters, Words, & Sentences

Regardless of medium, raw materials are essential to the creative process. The twenty-six letters of the alphabet form close to two hundred thousand words in the English language. Our individual responses to the letters of the alphabet and to the meaning of a word may vary. A word’s meaning may also change in subtle or startling ways depending on the other words that surround it in a sentence. During informal sessions, we will share excerpts from published writers, write about words, expand the stories in single sentences, and explore our sensory connection to the medium of our chosen craft and to the natural world.

Visiting artists augment the session with informal activities and are not workshop leaders.