Beads that Speak
A language for making sense
For Nan Heldenbrand Morrisette, art is as much process as it is “output”. Her process produces art, but even more than that, it is a trail map to life questions and a struggle to find clarity. It invites all of us to join her in an appropriate and well-paced reflection of the monotonies of the internal heart work in which we all should be engaging. But, somehow, she invites us also to something akin to that deep exhalation of contentment you get when you reach the stunning summit of a long journey.
Open hands, an open and curious mind, and an open heart are the way to engage her work.
A note from Nan:
One recent morning, my husband and I sat in our study - me in the big chair by the window, Tom at his worktable reading an article was about a gentleman trying to deal with deciding what to do with all the paintings his father had left behind upon his death. There were many. The family needed a means for people anywhere to view the paintings and read about the artist. After finishing the article, Tom looked at me and said, “We have to begin working on a way to share your legacy with the family and the world.”
So we hired a good friend and his agency, pivotol.com to do just that. We asked Ben to create a web site that would, initially, describe me and my journey as an artist. It would be done through several interviews and by working with their web designer and photographer. As a beginning step to presenting my beadwork, we selected five of the larger pieces and a five-piece installation:
A Shawl of Advice
I Am I - from 71 to 74
The Story Boas:
Beauty Boa
Paris to Barcelona
Ornithology
One Suitcase: An Installation Representing the Global Refugee Crisis
Dropped on a Beach
Strands and Symbols
Trafficking
Liberty
A Suitcase
(Note continued on “Note from Nan” page…)
How to “Hear” Them Speak
Lifting the edge of one panel of the piece “I Am I,” feel its tremendous weight in your hands. So many tiny beads, seemingly weighing “nothing,” have turned into a very palpable and heavy “something”. It is a literal allegory for the inner work of the mind and the heart. And that is why Nan’s beads speak. Much like her own speaking voice, Nan’s allegory is soft and subtle. We have to slow down and listen.
The best things in this world speak softly, slowly and quietly, like breezes or trees, or rivers or tall grasses. Listen.
Why does the artist bead?
