Sara Tabbert
• natural and dyed wood veneer, woodcut print •
I have long paid attention to beaver dams and lodges, admiring them as significant elements of the northern landscape. I’ve been intrigued by the stories around beavers as well – their history that winds through the story of the US, their ability to foil the efforts of humans, their decimation and recovery, and the way their activities and movement may confoundingly either combat or accelerate climate change, depending on location. I also have a deep affinity for any animal with the drive to utilize and manipulate wood. Over the past six months it has been all I can do to control my impulse to tell people things about beavers – particularly after reading Ben Goldfarb’s book “Eager.” I am planning my 2025 solo exhibition in the Bear Gallery to be a big, wild ride through this current fixation. You can regard this as an introduction (or perhaps a warning?). This piece, and its related companions elsewhere in the gallery, make use of some of the stories I encountered of the practical rodent making use of things “liberated” from the human world. I imagine an appetite for wood-handled tools, a political bent, a decorative impulse. As is often the case, art moves the idea several (silly?) steps past what science justifies.
SARA TABBERT
Sara Tabbert is a printmaker and mixed media artist from Fairbanks, Alaska. With an MFA in printmaking from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, her love of woodblock printing has led to many other explorations of wood as an art medium.
Tabbert has been awarded grants from the Rasmuson Foundation and the Alaska State Council on the Arts. She recently returned from a nine-week residency in Philadelphia through the Museum for Art in Wood.
Sharing art with other people is one of Tabbert’s priorities. She currently teaches out of and manages the Folk School’s print studio.
Website: www.saratabbert.com
