Posts by Sarah
A Little at a Time
“When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself.” Isak Dinesen
Read MoreGathering and Building
My father is coming out to Pennsylvania this weekend to help me transform an old, ugly garage into a fancy, new studio. We have to secure the foundation, move support beams on the trusses, add more outlets, install two windows and a door, insulate, drywall on the ceiling and paneling on the walls, trim it out, install…
Read MoreRejection, Get Up Again
Dear Sarah, Thank you for entering the — Competition 2013. With over three thousand entries in all media, the decisions were difficult to make. The judges met in late March and chose a small group of semifinalists. We are sorry to tell you that your work was not selected by the jury. We hope that you…
Read MoreOne Shovelful at a Time
Reprinted from my old blog, Nine Tons of Marble, on May 9, 2009. My uncle tells this beautiful parable about achieving a monumental task. Many years ago, he and his young son had to lay a sewer line in the back yard. They had to dig a forty-foot trench by hand, too poor to afford…
Read MoreAn Aesthetic Experience
I was watching 60 Minutes last night and they reported on a most remarkable orchestra in the Congo. The Kimbanguist Symphony Orchestra is the only symphony orchestra in Central Africa and the only all-black orchestra in the world. The musicians are all volunteers, some walking 90 minutes each way to get to rehearsal. I don’t know much…
Read MoreGood Friday
John 18:1 – 19:42 The Passion 18After Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. 2Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Jesus often met there with his disciples. 3So Judas brought…
Read MorePortraiture as Art
On July 3, 2006 I went to the National Portrait Gallery with Erik. They were celebrating a re-opening after a long renovation and it was the opening of the big portrait competition, which I entered this year. I did a portrait of Asha in only two weeks. It was very intense. I even made a…
Read MorePlaceless
I am a person who talks a great deal about Place. Perhaps I’ve read too many Wendell Berry books. Or perhaps I’m on my fifteenth address in thirty-four years. I am placeless. My studio follows my same pattern. I moved into my first outside-of-school studio in 2001 in Frederick, Maryland. It was a tiny space…
Read MoreThe Armature
The arts committee and parish priest at the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton have given me the green light to proceed with the enlargement of the four sculptures. The studio space conundrum has gotten in the way of my progress, but I have been encouraged by my ever-gracious and supportive husband to start anyway. Or in…
Read MoreAnnunciation Day
Luke 1:26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee:…
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