In twenty-nine years, Jan Haag has created twenty-three extraordinary works of Textile Art in needlepoint. This brief glimpse of her work serves as an introduction and invitation to you to visit her website, janhaag.com, to see, read about and explore the many aspects of her life's work.

		Jan writes: "Over the years, working on these pieces has become one of my primary ways of understanding both the world and my experience of it. They have also, along with my poetry, become a tangible expression of the pleasure associated with my studies in music, astronomy, mathematics, travel, archaeology, architecture and the iconographic, mystical and esoteric traditions of many cultures."

"The design for this pillow was inspired by a traditional layout of the I Ching. The pattern is composed of the sixty-four Kua from this ancient Chinese book of divination -- sometimes called the Book of Changes. Each Kua consists of broken and/or solid lines in sets of six."

"This pillow, designed for a Chinese Chippendale Chair, represents a marriage of many cultures. Entirely needlepointed, the pillow took two years to finish. With this piece I began improvising all my designs, depending on karma, serendipity, fate to bring me the right element at the right time."

"The central design in Kalachakra is an adaptation of the All Powerful Ten Symbol of Tibetan Buddhism which, among other things, relates to "good fortune" and "world peace." It is the first needlepoint I stitched and unstitched repeatedly to make sure the patterns counted across accurately. Ordinarily, I simply justify "mistakes" and go on. But here I needed a certain perfection to convey the impression of "rugs" lying beneath the topmost motif."

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Jan Haag's two recent needlepoints are based on the rhythms and melody of North Indian Classical music, which she studied with Ali Akbar Khan and Swapan Chaudhuri from 1993 to 1996.

"As I began to study and practice North Indian Classical music, for which, even though I had great love, I had no musical talent, I soon found I could grasp the music by transposing it into visual patterns."

"Music and needlepoint share not only a mathematical precision, but an infinitely subtle, almost mystical range of variability and improvisation. Music is perhaps the most magical art in the universe, but needlepoint has one advantage -- the stitches stay where they are put, while music dissolves into silence."

"In Mukhra/Tukra/Chakradar I wanted to explore musical "color" and rhythmical patterns, as well as light, shadow and transparency. With gradations of color and the shimmer of rayon, silk, gold and silver the designed-in "directional light" would, I hoped, give the finished work a certain incandescence - a visual equivalent to the transcendent luminosity one feels hearing a great tabla player in concert."

Glimpse Jan at work on Mukhra/Tukra/Chakradar in its earliest stage in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in San Rafael. "I love to work in the quiet and history of cemeteries." JH

"Though I have taken up The Ten Thats a number of times since 1996, I did not begin to really work on it again until the end of March, 2004. Up to this time, my musical needlepoints had been designed solely around drum bols, i.e. the rhythmical aspect of music. This time I would try capturing, and perhaps analyzing a little, those elusive, exquisite sounding, almost instantly disappearing notes of melody."

See and read about Jan's progress as she created The Ten Thats.

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"Most importantly, the needlepoints are to be seen -- just as they are -- in and for themselves. However, I also believe that a work of art can take on greater meaning, depth, and excite a more complex appreciation if one comes to know the meaning, history and background of its "language," symbols, sources, and intentions."

"My hope is that people, seeing these needlepoints will, first, be attracted by their beauty, then, like bees visiting a flower, stay to savor the honey of their meaning."

Jan Haag, July 2004.

janhaag.com


Also visit 21st CENTURY ART, C.E.-B.C., A Context -- a visual and written essay on the oldest art/newest arts.


Haag's needlepoint work in its entirety can be seen at janhaag.com under Textile Art. Though she does not show or sell individual pieces, she does occasionally exhibit her work as a collection. "They sing with one another, when they are hung together." Her last exhibit was at the Seattle Asian Art Museum in 1996. "I've only finished one and almost-another (the two most elaborate of my life) since then," Haag says, "it may soon be time for another show."



Jan Haag offers private lessons and workshops
She lives in Seattle and can be contacted at:
jhaag@u.washington.edu


All the above works and quoted texts are copyrighted
© 2005 by Jan Haag, All Rights Reserved.