This represents only about 10 seconds of the 1971 “Anthrax” album recording of the wonderfully swirling, cyclical mantras of Terry Riley’s Sax, and the piano’s oceanic roll by John Cale, (famous for his membership in the Velvet Underground).
Image below was the first small model for the large piece above. Silk, cotton and metallic thread and floss, 12″x12″
Every single day with Mark Hahn is a blessing- full of laughter, fascinating conversations, kindness and so much LOVE. This is my largest sewn piece to date in my effort to suggest how happy I am with my beloved.
This is what most of my drawings start as- listening through fancy head phones, with my aural/visual response on a napkin which is my favorite drawing paper. I scan the napkin, clean up the image and colorize a multitude of color and texture choices in Photoshop, blow up the image to size I want to sew, print pattern and use as stencil to cut fabric for completed piece, hand embroider in place and VOILA- there it is
This is a cover for an Artist Book I designed prior to our trip to Italy in 2013. We made this visit to my nine Italian composer/musician friends who lived in Catania, Campania or Lucca, and who created the music that was my soundtrack of healing when I was very ill in 2009. This poem by Tagore and the five drawn color variations of the hand sewn cover, are included in the Book.
The eternal Dream
Is borne on the wings of ageless Light
That rends the veil of the vague
And goes across Time
Weaving ceaseless patterns of Being.
The mystery remains dumb,
The meaning of this pilgrimage,
The endless adventure of existence –
Whose rush along the sky
Flames up into innumerable rings of paths,
Till at last knowledge gleams out from the dusk
In the infinity of human spirit,
And in that dim-lighted dawn
She speechlessly gazes through the break in the mist
At the vision of Life and Love
Emerging from the tumult of profound pain and joy.
Tagore
September 16, 1929
This grew out of the bubbling ebullience I feel contemplating my love for my husband. The final name for this piece was given to it by our dear friend, Tony Lawson, a composer and musician.
After a week spent with my elderly mother and her growing dementia, I needed to create a newly quiet, meditative space for myself, and did so through this work.
This was the most compulsive piece that I have ever made, begun on the very first day of my retirement. In my impulse to create on the spot, I simply cut up three old pieces of silk clothing and sewed them together. I am the person on the right side, looking backwards toward the left, at my skills, passions and my undeveloped hopes and dreams.
Living Out Loud: The Art of Geri Hahn 