9th State Artisans grew out of an auspicious, albeit random, post-workshop grouping of its participants. Along with about 25 other artists and craftsmen, we attended a weekend-long Artist’s U workshop sponsored by the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen. The workshop focused on sustainable practices for artists. At the end of the workshop the large group was divided into small working groups. Each small group was asked to meet once a month for five months to follow up on the workshop’s curriculum. For most groups, that was it, five meetings; done and dusted. But at the end of our group’s required meetings, we decided that we were not quite done with each other.
We enjoyed the camaraderie that we were developing. We offered each other creative challenges as well as a sense of accountability; things that can be hard to find as individuals maintaining solo studio practices. We helped each other explore creative territory beyond our usual comfort zones. Along the way we developed a sense of trust, respect, and appreciation for each other's personal and professional insights and experiences, creative processes and studio practices.
9th State Artisans is a creative entity, and as such, is constantly, continually evolving. In the words of Andrew Simonet from Artists U, we are “building a balanced, sustainable artistic life”. Whether we are offering each other playful creative challenges, advice on exhibit applications, or mounting group exhibitions, our camaraderie as 9th State Artisans helps to balance and sustain our lives as artists.
The 9th State Artists
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Adele Sanborn
My pieces incorporate my own handmade paper as a surface for calligraphy, whose texts are drawn from sources as varied as traditional Shaker songs, Lao Tzu, and Winnie-the-Pooh. I like to transform the written dimension into lettering art and then accent the verse with watercolors, my own photos, or natural found objects.
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Cheryl Miller
My work process is improvisational. I start with an idea, a pair of scissors and a pile of fabrics. I draw inspiration from nature and art history often mixing in hidden stories, symbolism or words. I make my pieces with a simple mechanical sewing machine using stitching and raw edge applique to create a textile collage. People often find an emotional connection to my work based on a feeling or experience they have had in their life. This is what keeps me creating.
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Jane Balshaw
My work is a contemporary expression, yet is created by borrowing tools and techniques from the Old World Decorative Arts. The likes of skip troweling, faux graining and solvent dispersed paint make it to my fabric painting, along with the implementation of The Masters’ styles executed with thought to the Golden Ratio. Further embellished with paper making, felting, wood burning and jewelers techniques, it all comes together in the form of a stitched or quilted textile.
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Lori Rollason
I learned to throw pots at Wesleyan Potters in Middletown, Connecticut, my home town, when I was in high school. Fast forward about 35 years through a richly varied and lively period. At long last, I wound my way back to clay. After moving with my husband to Manchester, New Hampshire, I began taking community education ceramics classes at The New Hampshire Institute of Art. Eventually, I enrolled in their Master of Art in Art Education degree program with a studio focus in ceramics.
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Steven Hayden
Steven Hayden is a sculptor and furniture maker working in New Hampshire’s lakes region. Steven is an artist and an engineer and his unique approach to blending seemingly disparate materials; wood, metal, clay, and glass; into functional and artistic pieces is the result of decades of practice and study. Seeing his work you will initially notice the artist’s interplay of crisp lines of forged steel with the warm tones of well finished hardwoods and sparkles of light and color from metallic glazed ceramic or glass. Looking closer will reveal the work of the engineer and craftsman. A combination of ages old traditional joinery and very modern techniques are used to bring the elements together. Having the engineer and artist at work inside of one person can be challenging but, when it all comes together, the result is a work of art that has enduring beauty and function that is meant to be enjoyed for generations.