Sarah Crooks
What is Waterspirit Rises? Other than a fabulous dancing 40' puppet created from recycled waterbottles, what else does it need to be? She's the Keeper of the mythological Red Pearl River and engages children of all ages in a lively search for her lost Pearl in a spectacle style street performance.
Conceived by environmental artist Sarah Crooks Flaire, and created in community, this unique performance piece teaches, environmental stewardship through interactive play while learning about the estuary habitat of our lower St. Johns River. Giant oysters, tiny plankton and the monumental Waterspirit puppet, reveal the secrets of the mouth where salty and sweet waters meet and encourage creative habits that promote clean water.
The merry band of puppeteers took to the streets, emerging from the Main Library in search of the lost Pearl in downtown Jacksonville.
Inspired by the tapestry drawing Beasts of Burden from my Red Pearl River series, this giant snake like Spirit of Life, teaches water conservation, interdependence and creative recycling to children of all ages.
Did you know that the estuary provides habitat for dozens of young animals including the blue crab. Oysters are the keystone species and help stabilize the shore, filter the water as well as creating a safe place for critters like these .
Redirecting my Energy Daily -RED- is the task before me, to turn my activity and thinking towards positive change. This suite of tapestries and related objects challenge Judeo Christian cultural dominationof the natural world through colonization and exploitation. I seek to create a new narrative based on communiion with nature by reconnecting to the world through the lens of the divine feminine. These tapestries repurpose and repattern long held cultural beliefs. Humble charcoal drawings depict an intuitive new world where culture and nature are harmonized. Like giant cave paintings , archetypal yet personal each 16' tapestry is drawn, over printed, dyed and sewn by hand.
Charcoal, acrylic, gesso on pre-printed fabric with silkscreen create a giant Tree of Life based on a matriarchal lineage.
Created from re purposed fabric sporting a chinoiserie motif, this 16' x 6.6' tapestry drawing has been created with charcoal and gesso through a process of drawing and resist hand dying. A backing was hand dyed andsewn into place creating a monumental tapestry drawing.
Each tapestry goes through a hand dying process before the final sewing. A process of letting go.
Each tapestry id hand sewn to a dyed backing, giving it more substance and longevity. I love this process of meditaion and revisiting each area with attention . Like mending, I bind the pieces together as the final act before exhibition.
Asthe Inspiration for the Waterspirit puppet , I installed the tapestry in the main library with text panels hightlighting our shared need for clean water....
Inspired by thesuccessful restoration of the Platte River in Minnesota, because of the importance of that landscape inthe migration of the Whooping Cranes. Here is a joyful Quan Yin, goddess of compassion, looking down on that endevor. Limited edition prints are available for sale of this detail from the 2nd tapestry Beasts of Burden of RED Pearl River.
This little beauty emerged while I was working on the third RPR tapestry drawing The Gift. She's holding a seed.
The first relative I met was my daughter. I met my birth mother 3 years later after a lifetime of searching. I have created self portraits my whole life, manufacturing my own tribe out of maps, canvas,paint, hair and bones. I met my birth mother at the age of 38, and then began to learn what genetic memory really is. Gifts of Incorporation utilizes the flexible medium of printmaking to create life size intaglio self portraits. Some are caught in the act of transformation, some are deep listeners, some sound the depths, searching for connection.
4&20 BlackBirds premiered at the Rite of Passage exhibition at the Wilson Center Gallery in 2010. Utilizing my Belly Button Book, shadow pupperty and props I explore the stigma associated with adoption and our current state of overpopulation, and genetic manipulation.
Rite of Passage installation at Wilson Center for the Arts. Each body part is from a 22"x22" copperplate. Uniique inking with inclusions.
4&20 BlackBirds premiered at the Rite of Passage exhibition at the Wilson Center Gallery in 2010. Utilizing my Belly Button Book, shadow pupperty and props like the chalkboard seen at the back, I explore the stigma associated with adoption, frustration with human overpopulation and the ethics of genetic manipulation.
Handcrafted luxury spaces and fine art for life inside and out. I love to enhance spaces by creating murals, fabrics, and mosaics in addition to adding individual pieces of fine art. I was invited to represent the State of Florida for the White House Holiday Tree. It doesn't get more fun to decorate than that ! Site specific installations, murals or jewelry, its about the collaboration between space and design that excites. I have been creating custom murals for special clients since 1992. Here are a few glimpses of these private places...
Creating custom murals is a process of listening as much as it is of creating. I value building relationships with the people who live within my crafted spaces and developing the project as a collaboration between the homeowner, the designer and the space.
This is a detail of Donna's Estuary which was handpainted in shades of blue and white to create a very ethereal landscape representative of the wild places of NorthEast Florida.
A grand staircase entrance with landing an a mosaic in the upstairs mezzanine thisproject was created for a client who's home sits right on the ocean. Ethereal blues and white create a sense of the shifting nuances of an estuary life.
Sweeping landscape with my keeper of the marsh in blue and white.
Available for sale as a limited edition, please visit my online shop for more information on purchasing.
When asked to create the ornaments for the National Holiday Tree representing the State of Florida I was excited to make tiny worlds celebrating the flora and fauna of the Timucuan Preserve. Each 5.5 inch sphere represents a little piece of estuary life that is either extinct, threatened or endangered.
As an environmental artist I have engaged the community in conversation and activism that supports clean water throughout the last 10 years. As artist in residence in 2007 at the Douglas Anderson School Of the Arts, I coached the visual arts department ona yearlong collaboration , The Cummer Museum, The Museum of Science and History, Jaxport, and the St. Johns Riverkeeper. We created a multimedia traveling exhibition that reached over 40,000 people raising awareness about the St. Johns River. Together we explored the flora and fauna, commerce and cultural historyof the region,
My latest clean water project stems from my training to become a Florida Master Naturalist. Now certified in Freshwater, Coastal and Uplands habitat ecology, I createdthe interactive soft sculpture Terry The Oyster, as a teaching tool. Oysters are the keystone species of the estuary and provide habitat, stabilize the shoreline while filtering our water.
Natural Oyster beds are in 80% decline worldwide due to pollution and habitat degredation. We can learn a lot about community and our interdependence when we study oysters .
I am available for school visits, lectures and exhibitions with my anatomically correct friend Terry and her oversized estuary friends.
Hundreds of monarch mimics created from recycled materials like magazines, love letters, and aluminum cans, celebrate transformation. Each butterfly is hand silkscreened and hand cut, then pinned as a private prayer. What started in 2010 as a flock of 1000 at the South Gallery, Wilson Center for the Arts, has traveled in ephemeral flocks across the United States. My most recent installation Flock of Wonder, commissioned by the Baptist Health MD Anderson Cancer Center celebrates the tenacity of the human spirit.
"At some point our ego expands into ripeness... "Lewis Hyde The Gift
Thank you to the Community Foundation of Northeast Florida for partnering with the NEA to create the Art Ventures fund. I am a proud recipient of two such grants.
Hundreds of Monarch mimics evolve over three months....
Re-purposed aluminum, acrylicsilkscreened and hand cut-each butterfly is 2"x2"
A collection of past exhibitions, individual works and ideas which still inform my practice.
From the series 3 seasons- 20 14”x14” oil on canvas
Collection of Community Hospice
Acrylic on Canvas
36”x40”
private commission
As the 2016 Artist in Residence at theMuseum of Science and History I fell in love with the Florida Black Bear and it's relevance to the springs of the St. Johns River. Costumes, assemblage and life drawing from the museums taxidermy collection explore the tensions between domestic and wild that face both The Bear and I . On display through February 26,2017with a public reception and artists talk on January 20 from 6-7:30pm.
Situated at the end of the Currents of Timepermanent exhibit at the museum, this installation features a fantastic bearskin rug/costume , Grandmother Star Bear Comes from the Land of Flowers, and other related works. Mixed with artifcts from the archives of the Museum of Science and History, each work reinterprets the Florida Black Bear.
Urban Sprawl is one of the Florida Black Bears biggest enemies.
Graphite on Paper with collage
48"x36"
Machine applique' with manufactured decorative fabrics and those hand silkscreened and dyed, this life size bearskin rug depicts the history of land use in Florida and illustrates the Story of Grandmother Star Bear.
