[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 129 (Tuesday, July 30, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5184-S5185]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO SABRA FIELD
Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, over a storied 50-year career, Sabra
Field has established herself as a great Vermont artist. Her works have
made hers a unique and highly sought-after brand, one which beautifully
depicts Vermont's landscape. Her prints, made by hand using woodblocks,
are a premier example of how Vermonters harbor a deep commitment to
creating and providing high-quality goods, made with passion. Her work
has promoted Vermont, and I could not be more proud to recognize this
acclaimed artist.
Sabra enrolled at Middlebury College in 1953, where she was inspired
by Piero della Francesca's painting ``The Flagellation of Christ.'' One
of her instructors instilled a belief within her that, in her words,
made art ``seem like a noble calling.'' Sabra has followed this calling
over the last 50-years, creating beautiful works of art that portray
Vermont's landscapes. Born in Oklahoma and raised in neighboring New
York, Sabra believes that her professional career began when she moved
to Vermont. She recalled in a Vermont Digger article that ``Vermont was
beautiful and Vermonters unpretentious, generous, and understood `home
occupation.' I was free to be me.'' This environment made Vermont an
ideal work and home location for Sabra.
Sabra's achievements are impressive. Her work has been featured on
the cover of Vermont Life magazine. It is showcased in a stained glass
window at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire. It has
been printed on 250,000 UNICEF Cards. And Sabra's work was featured on
60 million postage stamps commemorating Vermont's 1991 bicentennial.
Sabra's work has gained popularity far and wide over the last five
decades. Marcelle and I have several of her prints in our home as well.
I am proud to recognize the contribution and achievements that Sabra
has made over her 50 years in Vermont. I ask unanimous consent to have
printed in the Record a Vermont Digger article titled ``Sabra Field
marks 50th year making Vermont Art.'' It describes the hard work that
goes into making each piece of art and highlights Field's commitment to
capturing Vermont's picturesque landscape.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Vermont Digger, July 7, 2019]
Sabra Field Marks 50th Year Making Vermont Art
(By Kevin O'Connor)
East Barnard.--Sabra Field recalls the moment a half-
century ago when she made her first woodblock print in
Vermont.
``No one said I couldn't,'' she says, ``and I was too naive
to realize the odds.''
The Oklahoma-born and New York-raised artist didn't know
her ink-on-paper images of red barns, green hills and blue
skies would land on the cover of Vermont Life magazine, an
annual namesake calendar, a stained glass window at
neighboring New Hampshire's Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical
Center, 250,000 UNICEF cards and 60 million postage stamps
commemorating Vermont's 1991 bicentennial.
This coming weekend, the 84-year-old printmaker will
celebrate her 50th year making iconic Vermont art.
``When people ask what piece means the most to me,'' she
says, ``I answer, `The one I'm going to do next.' ''
Field's Green Mountain story began in 1953 when she
enrolled at Middlebury College (``there was no math
requirement,'' she explains) and had an epiphany while
studying Piero della Francesca's 1450s painting ``The
Flagellation of Christ.''
``I saw that great art is composed from what we see,'' she
recalls, ``but it is not a replica of what we see.''
Field's watercolor teacher made art ``seem like a noble
calling.'' But she yearned less for a brush than for
woodblocks, which she discovered upon further schooling at
Connecticut's Wesleyan University.
``Prints are for everybody,'' she says of the easily
reproducible medium. ``I wanted to spend all my time making
images and I was willing to take the risk. I felt, in a
sense, that I had no choice.''
``Over the course of her career she has received any number
of accolades, and has been variously described as `the Grant
Wood of Vermont,' `the artist laureate of Vermont,' and as
someone who `has touched more lives than any Vermont artist
in history,' '' Richard Saunders, a Middlebury College
professor and director of its Museum of Art, wrote in the
catalogue of the 2017 retrospective ``Sabra Field, Then and
Now.''
[[Page S5185]]
Yet every peak in this artist's world is framed by valleys.
The mother of two young sons moved from Connecticut to a
former 19th-century tavern in the White River valley village
of East Barnard after her first marriage ended in 1969.
``When I arrived, people were unsure,'' she recalls. ``Is
she just here for the summer?''
Field soon contacted the secretary of state's office to
register a printmaking business.
``Somehow I knew I wanted the legitimacy of being
validated.''
Tallying initial sales on her children's toy cash register,
Field began to design, draw and cut the woodblock images that
have sustained her ever since.
``My life as a professional artist really didn't begin
until I moved,'' she says. ``Vermont was beautiful and
Vermonters unpretentious, generous, and understood `home
occupation.' I was free to be me.''
Field soon met her second husband, Spencer, who became her
business manager. But her work wasn't always seen as
marketable. Take the story behind her 1977 four-print
``Mountain Suite.''
``Vermont Life requested a seasonal suite to sell,'' she
recalls. ``Then they declined to buy them.''
The artist went on to distribute the images herself. The
magazine has since folded. But log onto her website and
you'll see the passed-over prints remain in circulation for
$250 each.
Field's resulting career has been chronicled in two books--
2002's ``The Art of Place'' and 2004's ``In Sight''--and the
2015 documentary ``Sabra.'' Middlebury College, for its part,
has an archive copy of every one of her prints.
Field can share stories of private struggle as well as of
professional success. She rewinds back five decades to inking
her first works.
``I hung them outside to dry.''
The wind wasn't the only thing that got carried away that
day.
Field has weathered bigger changes ranging from the advent
of new reproduction technology for the prints she continues
to create by hand to the 2010 death of her husband. Now
assisted by fellow printmaker and neighbor Jeanne Amato, she
still works with woodblocks, be it for a recent children's
book ``Where Do They Go?'' with Addison County writer Julia
Alvarez or a coming nine-piece suite of prints she conceived
after President Donald Trump's election.
``I decided we needed to look at it as a challenge and we
couldn't let him manipulate our emotions,'' she says of the
Trump-inspired prints. As for exactly what they picture, she
adds only: ``They will be somewhat mysterious. But when you
get it, you get it.''
Field is marking her 50th year in Vermont with a special
poster and open house at her East Barnard studio July 13 and
14 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with more information available on
her website.
``The career highs that sustain me are not glamorous by the
standards of the wider world, but they confirm that I made
the right decision and that this wonderful place is home,''
she says. ``I've never fallen out of love with my medium. I
couldn't be happy otherwise.''
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