July 30, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 129 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[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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