I’ve been working on a couple of project proposals and I’ve come back to this old one from a few years ago. I’ll rewrite it and add to it…

I propose a new series of vessels that are an interpretation of an Aboriginal funerary basket made of seagrass, and other natural fibers, using a traditional “blanket” stitch. The basket is finished using coverings of concrete/cement, patined with wax and stains. These images illustrate the stitching and basic form, not the finished surface.

In the Aboriginal tradition the baskets are constructed of a woven mat with a minimum diameter of 8 feet wide. The mats are woven in the round, flat. A corpse is smoked, dried and folded into a prayer stance on top of the mat. The mat is then stitched closed around the loved one. Enclosing the spirit in preparation of an afterlife.

How we hold our loved one’s bodies as they come into and leave our lives is the focus of my explorations in Cradleboards to Coffins.

Nestings, wrappings and bindings encase the spirit and body in birth and death. Mothers swaddle their newborns to provide a womb outside the womb; use casings for transportation of their young, and to create a structured environment in which the parents may choose the their child’s first views of society. In death we send our loved ones away in coffins and caskets. The funerary bindings protect the living from disease, decay and the insurmountable fear of our own death.

Our customs for the newly born and recently departed are vibrantly similar though grossly separated. Through the methods of textile techniques I am exploring the forms of packaging society uses to contain our bodies and our spirits throughout our lives.

Raffia, seagrass, tar and waxes compose these new works. Aromatic, and textural I aspire to transport the viewer into a quiet, meditative space. Some forms are created using random weave basket techniques, intuitively winding individual strands of fiber throughout a mass of loose fiber to create a solid form. Then using random stitching I contort the vessel’s shape sewing the sides together and begin to create the feel of a human form pushing on the sides of the wrappings. As the casings develop I feel the conversation I hold with each one end and my respect for their existence blossoms.

To create one’s own language as an artist takes a great deal of time and growth. Now that I have found a “language” of vessels with techniques and materials, it is time for me to clarify my concepts and constructions to best communicate.

Technique, materials and forms are the structure of an object/element. I choose to sculpt using fibers – using a variety of materials from jute twine from the hardware store to bark peeled fresh from a tree, and cloth purposed for commercial fishing. To build an object I use a variety of textile techniques – stitching, knitting, crochet, coiling, weaving – any form of joinery. My forms develop from the materials’ strengths and weakness. They border on the yonic and womb-like, referencing nests, bindings, and scarification.

But I’ve allowed the materials and the processes to heavily influence the style of my work as opposed to enforcing the concepts I want to communicate. In a manner, I have been following or deciphering myself from my work. I believe that it might have been the best way for me to learn about myself to see or hear what I had innately to say. But now it is time, with new maturity and self-realization, to sit and create from a sense of awareness.

I will most likely always work by intuition but I would like to take this time to really examine each element of my process. From the initial concept, writing and sketching to the choice of materials – raw to manufactured or re-purposed, the technique to construct the structure and the conclusion of the object and it’s successfulness in communicating the original thought. I will be analyzing my “language” and hopefully be able to narrow down my words to the essential phrasing.

I just returned from 2 weeks at Haystack. It’s become a bit of a home-away-from-home. Hisako Sekijima was teaching and I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to meet her and work in her presence. I didn’t accomplish quite as much as I hoped but I did meet wonderful people and had a chance to see some old friends.

Yesterday I sat down for tea with a friend. She lost her husband this past year and picked up and moved to Santa Fe from New York. For an hour she discussed her beloved and how he cared and loved everyone, took care of all the details and nourished their family. I was a bit stunned to hear of a woman so openly giving over to her husband - trusting him implicitly. Once they were returning from a trip and the pilot of the plane recommended that the passengers take care and get into a crash landing position. After they landed safely the man next to her rose and asked her, “you look so calm”, her response - “my husband told me that everything would be fine”. She knew that she could believe every word he spoke. The integrity and care of her husband must have been infinite and makes me think back to my grandfather. My grandmother always told me to marry a man like my grandfather. Unfortunately I didn’t but maybe I will have another chance. He took care of my grandmother much like my friend’s husband did. I don’t know if I will ever be able to relinquish so much control and trust so fully but I am thinking more about how a loved on can honestly, genuinely care for you and want that person to be happy. I am so grateful for the many teachings I receive each week and for friends who share so openly with me.

It’s moving to me to meet an artist, a young artist, who is willing to sacrifice so many creature comforts to strive to be an artist and work wholly as a creator. Today I had the pleasure to attend the Feminists under Forty show in Belen at Through the Flower. All women artists, under forty who identify as feminists.

The show was thoughtful and quite eccentric but the artists are what impressed me. Shy women - really shy women - who are obviously uncomfortable navigating the art world but who have a passion for their work. I met one woman tonight who this show was her first show out of school. I don’t remember that experience for myself - I really don’t. I was so certain as to what I do that I did do it and expect for people to see it - in a gallery, museum, whatever. One of my first showings was at a museum now that I think of it. Along side of Agnes Martin…

These women that I met today are committed, are starving and fighting for their existence to be artists. It is uplifting and heartbreaking to see these women strive to be themselves. One woman could not stand my gaze - that I could see her. This show did empower a group of women and what a success that is.

I am so grateful for what I do, that I can do it and that I do it. I am so lucky to have a second job, as a graphic designer to pay the bills but that is creative and challenging. And I am even luckier to have the clients I do have and the opportunities that do arrive. And for some bizarre reason Judy Chicago respects me. If someone had asked me four years ago where I would be today I would not have said making sculpture, doing graphic design and working with some of the most amazing people I have ever met.

Damn, I am really grateful for what is today - what is my life at this moment.

Estyn Hulbert

Learning to Love You More

You’ve probably noticed …

My website went from a black background to white.
Also make sure you checkout the  photo gallery.