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Artist’s Statement-
My assemblage work includes play, experimentation, storytelling and wonder. Some of the most precious things about being an artist. Finding everyday objects, antique wood forms, textiles and mixed media opens my palette to countless sensations, discovering how feelings become tied into an object’s form, its texture and compositions. First I sculpt the faces and hands separately in clay or resin and then I search for what materials reflects the story of each figure.
Artist Statement
Images of real birds combine with mythical figures in my recent sculptures and installations. These artworks reflect human-avian connections in cultures around the globe as well as contemporary societal and environmental issues. Using simple materials and flights of fancy, they call attention to wonderment as well as to climate change, migration of birds and people, and our own psychic condition.
The sculptures strike a balance between abstract form and human or avian identity. Balanced in place or uplifted in flight, these linear, semi-transparent figures embody a sense of distilled emotion and archetypal presence. They acknowledge contradictions, combining strength and subtlety, movement and stability, ancient and contemporary outlooks.
My fascination with bird-figures began with awareness of gesture and observation of people and birds. I am continually inspired by stories and images of human-bird connection from Asia, Europe, Latin America, the world. In 2018-19, I spent five months as a U.S. Fulbright scholar and teacher in Taiwan, specifically to further this research. From traditional winged deities to flying heroines or villains of popular culture, these winged icons call up our deepest aspirations and affirm our desire to reach beyond the human realm.
To create these artworks, I use common hardware-store mesh and wire or steel tubing, as well as found objects and materials such as organic stones and recycled plastics. With tinsnips and pliers, and techniques borrowed from metalwork, sewing, and paper craft, I turn everyday materials into expressive, volumetric drawings in space.
Artist Bio
Sarah Haviland is a sculptor and installation artist whose recent work focuses on cross-cultural human-bird imagery and the environment. She was awarded a U.S. Fulbright Fellowship for creative research in Taiwan in 2018-2019. Her abstract-figurative sculptures and public art installations have been exhibited widely in galleries, parks, museums, healthcare, and educational settings, including commissions at the Flatiron Prow Art Space in Manhattan; Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ; Pratt Sculpture Park in Brooklyn; NYU Langone Medical Center; and the National Marine Museum in Taiwan. Other awards include a Creativity Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, fellowships from the New York and New Jersey State Arts Councils, and residencies at Sculpture Space, Skowhegan, and Yaddo. Sarah Haviland was born in Kansas City, Kansas, grew up in New Jersey, and earned a BA from Yale University and an MFA from Hunter College. She teaches at Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York, and maintains a studio in the Lower Hudson Valley.
Sue Mullaney – Artist Statement
The art of collage involves the metamorphosis that occurs when bits of paper, photographs, old letters, magazine images, ephemera, etc., are repurposed to create new realities. I like to start with a loosely defined idea and see how it evolves. The juxtaposition and layering of different images and textures start to create a story.
I find it enjoyable to select conventional images from a wide variety of sources and mix and recast them in sometimes startling ways. Often that process leads to the creation of whole new worlds; surreal, bizarre, or whimsical.
All the collages tell stories, but the narratives may not be wholly dependable. Viewer’s first interpretations often slip into a different reality – or surreality – upon a second perusal. Ambiguity prevails.
It is always rewarding for me to see other people’s interpretation of my artwork. I hope my collages tickle viewers’ imaginations so that they really engage with the work, and discover not only the big idea, but the details – often small, but never incidental.
Artist Statement
I started creating linocut collages as a way to make larger work when I no longer had access to a large etching press. But I soon began to see that working this way, allowed me to continue my interest in visual narratives. My linocut collages tell personal stories created with images designed to both reveal and conceal. Our modern visual field is filled with multiple images that we are asked to make sense of simultaneously. These are repeated in many formats such as comics, graphic novels, advertising and film. Printmaking allows for repetition of images that may be put together in many ways. The works may be shown individually or attached together to create wall sized pieces. The narrative may not be the same for the viewer as it is for me. My work juxtaposes a primitive, perhaps story with a modern format.
My work tries to contain the natural world on paper. Paper, is the connector, that makes all of my prints color and light. I imagine the worst part of not being alive is, not touching, smelling and seeing material in all its tactile beauty that nature evokes. My art work tries to draw a human connection with our world and slowing down of time. We are whole when we are connected to the soil and earth.
