Vermont has been a fertile place of inspiration for many artists and writers, but few have embraced it as significantly as printmaker Sabra Field. The green mountains, fecund valleys, dirt roads, deep lakes, and meandering streams have all been subject matter and were clearly on display during the artist's recent retrospective of her last 60 years of image making, held at her alma mater, Middlebury College. The exhibition, which closed on August 13, 2017, was the 82-year-old Field's third retrospective, honoring her long, productive career.

Called Now and Then, this exhibition was perhaps Field's most personal and revealing to date, based on the anecdotal notations beside each work, which place the images within a memoir-like context. The sheer decorative beauty of the prints at times belies a darker motivation behind the subject matter. An early 1965 self-portrait bore the caption: "This is me the year I grew up, age 30, when my parents died within a week of each other." Surely, making art helped the artist through a year when her mother died of a heart attack and her father committed suicide.

This was enough tragedy for any one life; however, it was not the last tragedy that would affect the tone of Field's imagery. In 1971, her firstborn son, 9-year-old Clay, died after an automobile accident. The following year, her contemplative suite of 14 prints of text images for the 23rd Psalm was exhibited at the Stratton Arts Festival and marked a beginning of her focus on landscape.

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"You should write a book!" Has anyone ever said that to you after hearing about your life experiences? Everyone has a story. Many of us have thought of writing down these stories, whether for family or for posterity or for ourselves.

For some, a book is an elaborate business card, substantiating professional viability or giving entre to a teaching position. For others, it's a creative calling or an inner necessity to share meaningful material or to participate in the collective dialogue. Writing can help clarify our ideas about a subject or about life. Putting a manuscript together takes commitment, and publishing a book can be a courageous act of expressing ourselves, sharing our vision, our deep fantasies and private thoughts with the world. Vermont writer Rickey Gard Diamond says, "I've read books that have deeply moved me. As a writer, I'd like to deeply move my readers."

But it's not all that easy to get one published. Only a tiny percent of completed manuscripts see the light of day. The impact of increasing large conglomerate publishing houses and the Internet revolution have both changed the playing field. Out of aesthetic necessity new business models for publishing are being developed.

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Author Jessica Lipnack describes Vermont as "like a soft pillow for writers." Nancy Jainchill went to Bennington where she found validation as a writer, and Jenny Grosvenor writes and lives in Stowe. And all traveled to New York City (along with this writer) to attend The Writer's Hotel in New York City, seeking to further their writing careers and goals. It was at this weeklong conference, held annually in June, where we met for the first time.

The Writer's Hotel is described, on its website, as a hybrid writers' conference offering a "mini MFA." Founded by Shanna McNair, with Scott Wolven as consulting director, the conference holds workshops and readings at four hotels in midtown Manhattan that circle Bryant Park, one of the most beautiful open spaces in the city. The conference draws people from around the world, as well as around the country.

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