Sarah Lane Art -Beginning Anew
- sarahsartlife
- Jul 30
- 5 min read
Dear Friends in Art and Creativity,
It's been a minute . . . or rather, two years and two months. I let my newsletter and website, Etsy and art sales lapse when I returned to full-time work with the federal government in 2023. The idea was to finish my time in federal service, which I have done in chunks between raising children, and retire into full-time art in a few years.
Alas, the future has changed, and so before I commit myself to a path outside of art, I'd like to dive more fully into art and give this a real "go." Because it's what I love most. Because while I am grateful for the many "cracks" through which my art pops up in the moments of my days and weeks and years, I wonder what it would be like to give myself over to creating for a while as a choice. Because perhaps it's worth choosing art and figuring that out.
While I've taken a hiatus from the business of art, I've not stopped exploring or experimenting in my lifelong journey of making and teaching. I've gone deeper into embroidery, felt and textiles and may have fallen in love with the tactile experience of working with wool in all its forms. More to come.
It's so good to see you're still here! Thank you for that! Take good care and enjoy this day!
With gratitude,
Sarah Lane
On July 26th, 10am-3pm, I'll be at the Front Street Arts Festival in Lynden, WA, with felt geodes (look closely :) critters, nests and felt paintings. Looking forward to meeting you there!
Why felt? Why not?
When I was a little kid . . . as opposed to the big kid I am today . . . I got into my grandmother's sewing supplies. I went up to her sewing room and, carefully avoiding the fancy and somewhat intimidating Singer sewing machine in its sewing table, I reached for the felt.
It would soon be Christmas, and while I knew better than my little sister that Santa Claus was not real, I did believe that I could fabricate an elf costume out of my mind and a bolt of green felt, glue some cotton balls onto a construction-paper beard, and become Santa's helper on Christmas to give my sister a special visitor from the North Pole. I'm not sure she bought it, but I felt pretty accomplished in my felt-sewing-gluing endeavor.
Thus began my love of felt. It was no longer solely for felt boards that teachers used as a visual aid in preschool to teach phonics and reading. It was now for costumes and home drama productions. Eventually, it was for the banana-split sundae pillow I made for home economics class in middle school. However, as with so many creative endeavors, it fell by the wayside when I realized that "real sewists" used real fabric that frays at the ends and must be sewn. I had to be more grown up.
In time, I learned to sew for real. I bought myself a sewing machine and made quilts and Halloween costumes and doll clothes, just like my grandmother and mother had done. I felt accomplished, even though my cuts weren't always the cleanest, and my lines of stitching weren't always 100% consistent.
Sewing felt practical. It also ran parallel to my art endeavors. I never really thought to blend the two, until . . . I made an art piece in response to a children's art show in May 2023. The child had envisioned pigs who had special powers and traveled in space. As an artist, my job was to respond to this. I got out the felt and made a mobile of floating pigs with a felt earth in the center. And I became curious.
Like Alice in Wonderland, I've become "curiouser and curiouser" about felt. And wool. Different kinds of wool from different sheep. Different colors of wool and ways of dyeing. Different ways of getting fibers to stick together. Wool has become a world of endless possibilities, adorned with timeless dependability and daily serendipity.I invite you to join me on this journey of this fiber journey with wool at the center of the exploration! Please keep your eyes open for upcoming classes!
Learning to draw--learning to see
Over the past two years, I've been teaching exclusively through the (wonderful) Whatcom Community College Continuing Education (WCCCE) program here, in Bellingham. Each season, I teach beginning and intermediate drawing as well as offer workshops in needle-felting and other subjects, as requested. No matter the season or medium, drawing remains central to all of my art endeavors as a practice of seeing and a foundation for creation. Please join me there--or if you are not in the area and would like to learn one-on-one online, please let me know! I'd be happy to meet with you.
Drawing: Beyond the Basics. Take your drawing skills to the next level. Whether you have basic drawing skills, or have taken Intro to Drawing, this class will enhance your perspective, color and composition skills in your drawing and beyond. We will continue to develop your drawing confidence over the course of three Thursday evenings, 6-8pm, 6/5. 6/12 and 6/26 (we will not have class on Juneteenth). Please register with Whatcom Community College Continuing Education, and check out the short, helpful supply list there as well. whatcomcommunityed.com
Drawing Outdoors. Enjoy three summer evenings with me, as I guide you in exploring drawing outdoors. For each session, we will meet at Hovander Homestead Park in Ferndale, WA, and focus on different aspects of outdoor drawing, including natural objects, landscapes, buildings and animals. We'll work in pencil, ink and watercolor in our sketchbooks, creating primarily from observation and building our toolkilt of techniques to translate what we see into pleasing sketches. Please register with Whatcom Community College Continuing Education, and check out the short, helpful supply list there as well. whatcomcommunityed.com
Lavender Love!
Every summer, I look forward to the lavender, baking in the summer sun--offering that rich, slightly astringent, cleansing scent that no chemical fabric softener or dish soap can really replicate. For the past few years, I've been visiting Laurel Lavender Farm in Ferndale, WA, to paint the lavender outdoors.This summer, I'll be teaching a 90-minute needle-felting workshop at Laurel Lavender Farm on Sunday, July 13th, 1pm. Participants will sign up through the farm and make a 6" felted hoop of lavender--all materials and instruction provided. Details to follow here and on Instagram at @sewlane_embroidery as the time is set! Stay tuned!
Bellingham Urban Sketchers! This is not a class or workshop, but it's FREE, and it's a great group of folks of all skill levels who sketch around Whatcom County. Check them out on Facebook. Our June Sketch Crawl will be at Big Rock Garden in Bellingham, June 21st, 10am-noon. To sketch, all you need to bring is yourself, paper and pencil or pen. Watercolors, watercolor pencils, colored pencils, pens and other materials welcome, but not necessary! If you're not on Facebook, just email me at sarah@sarahlaneart.com, and I'll send you the details for the upcoming Sketch Crawl!
Comments