BY JAN HAAG



POETRY + TEXTILE ART + MUSIC + ESSAYS + TRAVEL + FICTION

INTRODUCTION + 21st CENTURY ART, C.E.- B.C., A Context

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HAAG'S BIO

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ART & POETRY - ACCUMULATIONS

Click on a category to view its Table of Contents
-- NEW POSTING --

J O C A S T A

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THE HAAG NEEDLEPOINTS

2010 Exhibit - MB Abram Galleries

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INTRODUCTION





Everyone who lives owes it to humanity to report on what it's like to be a human being -- in one's own particular body, telling one's own particular truth. The Internet now provides the medium, the opportunity -- and the obligation.

Here begins my report. It contains works both published and unpublished and will, eventually, cover the wide range of my experience and studies.

First the studies: Beginning in 1996 as an Access Student at the University of Washington, I have indulged a passion to study everything under the sun, the moon, the galaxies, within and beyond the walls and voids; the earth, its mantle and its core, as well as its inhabitants, their thoughts and writings both Eastern and Western. (It is interesting that we in the Western World never speak of world knowlege as Northern or Southern.)

Recently, on November 28, 2003, I was reading The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson, First Vintage Books Edition, March 2003, (c) 2002 and found in the Prologue, written as a letter to Thoreau, this extraordinary as well as homely, definition of art:

"Although Walden is sometimes oracular in tone, I don't read it, the way some do, as an oration to the multitude. Rather it is a work of art, the testament of a citizen of Concord, in New England, from one place, one time, and one writer's personal circumstance that manages nevertheless to reach across five generations to address accurately the general human condition. Can there be a better definition of art?" -- Page xi
INDRA, Nepal
Photo: © Paul Macapia


This expresses with precision my hope for and purpose in creating janhaag.com. It is this kind of "art work" that we all owe each other -- and can do, now that the NET binds us, like the reflecting* pearls in Indra's Net, each to each.

However, I am not Thoreau and the world is no longer Walden Pond. The world is the world and in my brief lifetime, via my copious writings, I have tired to include as much as possible of what I have seen and what I understand of the Whole World - which I believe is ONE. And only when it is perceived as one, wherein each part is equally valuable and equally affects the whole, will we be at peace with one another.

My most recent studies include Sanskrit, Literature, Grammar and Linguistics, World History, Music, Literature and Architecture, also Archaeology throughout the world, Writing Systems, Textiles, Birds, Murder, Indian Art, Bio and Medical Ethics, Genetics, Sex, Mass Media Law, Non-Western Architecture, History of Ancient India, Nanotechnology, Dravidian origins, the history of South India, forms of Biography, Geology, the Biology of Fishes, the breathtakingly improbable history of the Internet, the even more unbelievable history of American democracy, all the forms of English and American Poetry, Pattern, Design, a bit of Gardening, Dinosaurs, Physiology, and daily research into the psychology of Shiva-purna, the cat.

An artist, a poet, needs to know everything. Some of the experiences I draw on are briefly noted in my bio.

If you want to watch the slow process of study, creation, and the forever transformational work on a Website, I usually work in the morning, West Coast time, U.S.A.. The creative process is of profound interest to me; composing directly in cyberspace is a great adventure. If you find errors, discontinuities or chaos in a particular work, I ask your pardon. For the most part, it simply means that page is still -- or will be again -- under construction.


*In the lower left corner under "earlier work" is the reference to Indra's Net. (Updated 03-01-07)


Jan Haag, Seattle, Washington
Began November 9, 1996, Diwali
Revised December 6, 2001, Birthday
Revised January 7, 2004, Full Moon
Revised July 12, 2004 -- the day the Bush Administration announced they are looking for ways to suspend elections in the USA
Revised August 1, 2004, one day beyond the blue moon
Revised February 3, 2006

NEW POSTINGS NOTES:

August 1, 2004 --I invite you to come on an adventure with me in stitching my latest needlepoint THE TEN THATS -- ie. to share step by step the creative process of developing an improvisational piece of needlepoint, indeed doubly improvisational, because it is based on North Indian Classical music -- which, like needlepoint, manifests within one of the strictest "grid systems" in the world, both of which, nonetheles, allow for, literally, infinite variation. Indeed the improvisation is triple as I layout the web page for which I have scanned, over time, the stages in developing the needlepoint, and now, having almost finished the piece, I am posting these along with an explantory text. The page is still very much under construction, but come and enjoy the process. It is hoped that the needlepoint will be completed just one step sooner than the web page.

Under Poetry, The Opinionated Cat has just been posted, a collection of Shiva-purna Poems.

Also, a new form of fiction, Cyber Bytes can be seen under Fiction. The Kalachakra and its text, the main philosophical and technical documentation of the Needlepoints, is now complete. An autobiographical Essay tells about the founding of the American Film Institute, Directing Workshop for Women. The 2001 Poems, The 2002 Poems, The 2003 Poems The 2004 Poems and The 2005 Poems form an almost, in some instances, daily-added-to foundation for my many Poetry Collections and Ascesis. As The 2006 Poems are gestating and being born, I will continue to add some of my Early Works in both poetry and prose.

In 2005, I completed many early drafts of a Novel/Memoir entitled Trivium. It will be posted eventually -- maybe after seven more drafts.

Under CAUTION on the Poetry, Table of Contents page, there is documentation about the 116 poems plagiarized from this website -- and poems plagiarized from at least ten other poets -- by AOL Poetry Board users, as well as some advice about what to do if you, as a poet or Internet user, are singled out for this dubious form of appreciation.







TABLE OF CONTENTS




+ Under POETRY are poems both mundane and mystical about India, America, China, Europe and other states of mind. New works are added frequently and noted under Newly Posted. Recent Collections include: The Exultation Poems (2003) Poems Inspired by Nisargadatta (2002), Birds Migrate At Night (1999), the 338 poems of the Poetic Forms Used in English, (The Desolation Poems) (1987-2001).This Forms Collection, contains most of the canon of about 400 American/English Poetry Forms. Along with its scansions and drafts, it is archived in Special Collections at the Blagg-Huey Library of Texas Womans University, Denton, Texas.


+ Under TEXTILE ART is an exhibition of Needlepoints, catalogued and footnoted, which was most recently exhibited at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Some of the works are based on North Indian Classical music, others are inspired by both Eastern and Western iconography.


+ Via TEXTILE ART this Website is linked to 21ST CENTURY ART, C.E. -- B.C., A Context. Created under the Open Studios Project of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Benton Foundation, the Seattle Art Museum, the Seattle Public Libraries and Microsoft's Technology Resource Institute, it exhibits some of the world's finest work in Needlepointing, Weaving, Baskerty, Architecture, Chinese Lattice, Tapestry, Rugs, etc. -- the "grid arts".


+ Under MUSIC can be found profiles of some of North Indian Classical Music's greatest musicians: Ali Akbar Khan , the finest musician alive today; Swapan Chaudhuri, the great tabla master; Sisir Kona Dhar Chowdhury, violinist; and Laxsmi Ganesh Tewari, vocalist.


+ Under ESSAYS will be posted some autobiography, some old and new articles, some philosophy. The first posting is Dream of the Marble Bridge, the Founding of the Directing Workshop for Women of the American Film Institue, a History.


+ Under TRAVEL are stories from India about Vijayanagar, Mahabaleshwar, Bodh Gaya; from America, Mission Walk, Crossing the Country, San Francisco ; other stories include Spain, Zen Walking, Terror. There are also poems about India, Nepal, Tibet, Angkor Wat, Iraq.


+ Under FICTION is No Palms, a novel, and the short stories: Sheba, Kat Black a mystical, Cattipoint-illustrated tale, and House Hunting, as well as various collections of Cyber Bytes.


Under ART & POETRY - ACCUMULATIONS is a collection of three-dimensional collages, made of and accompanied by poetry.






+ BYTES FROM HAAG'S BIO +




Copyright © 1996 through 2011 Jan Haag
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Jan Haag may be reached via e-mail: jjhaag@gmail.com




BY JAN HAAG


POETRY + MUSIC + ESSAYS + TRAVEL + FICTION + TEXTILE ART

INTRODUCTION + ART & POETRY - ACCUMULATIONS

+

21st CENTURY ART, C.E. - B.C., A Context