{{Short description|American printmaker and graphic artist}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2026}} thumb|Field in 1975 '''Sabra Johnson Field''' (born April 7, 1935) is an American printmaker known for her color woodcuts of the state of Vermont.<ref name="vgdigger-2017">{{Cite web|url=https://vtdigger.org/2017/07/16/sabra-field-show-reveals-personal-peaks-valleys/|title=Sabra Field show reveals personal peaks and valleys|date=July 16, 2017|website=VTDigger|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rutlandherald.com/news/new-horizons-vermont-artist-sabra-field-reaches-across-the-universe/article_18045083-06ff-509d-b49e-bb799517be71.html|title=New horizons Vermont artist Sabra Field reaches across the universe|first=Kevin |last=O'Connor|date=January 5, 2014|website=Rutland Herald|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref> Her work features on a United States postage stamp commemorating the bicentennial of the state. The stamp, which depicts a Vermont landscape scene of a red farmhouse set on rolling green hills with mountains in the background sold over 60 million units.<ref>{{cite web|title= 29c Vermont single. Postal Museum|work=United States Postal Service. Smithsonian|year=1991|url=http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/hm8bfbd5f87-6418-4225-ba29-289d8e7515ab|quote=The Postal Service commemorated the bicentennial of the state of Vermont with a 29-cent commemorative stamp issued on March 1, 1991, in Bennington, Vermont. The stamp design features rows of tilled soil and a brick-red farmhouse in the foreground with rolling, green hills and mountains in the background. Designed by noted Vermont artist Sabra Field, the stamps were produced in the photogravure process by the American Bank Note Company, and issued in panes of fifty.|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref><ref name="vgdigger-2017" /> She has been called the "Grant Wood of Vermont".<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=https://vnews.com/2017/07/21/sabra-field-retrospective-at-middlebury-college-museum-11394734/|title=Retrospective Presents Sabra Field in Her Own Words|first=Kevin|last=O'Connor|date=July 21, 2017|website=Valley News|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Field was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on April 7, 1935.<ref name="auto3">{{Cite web|url=https://hub.catalogit.app/vermont-historical-society/folder/entry/field-sabra-johnson-(b.-1935)|title=Field, Sabra Johnson (b. 1935)|website=Vermont Historical Society|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref> She was raised in New York.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite web|url=https://www.brattleboromuseum.org/2013/12/05/iconic-vermont-artist-sabra-field-discusses-her-work-at-the-brattleboro-museum-art-center/|title=Iconic Vermont Artist Sabra Field Discusses Her Work at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center|work=Brattleboro Museum & Art Center|date=December 5, 2013|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref> She attended Middlebury College, where she was mentored by artist Arthur K.D. Healy.<ref name="auto3"/> Field was the first student to major in art at Middlebury,<ref name="auto"/> receiving her art degree in 1957.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/artist-sabra-field-a-life-and-works-in-retrospective/Content?oid=7236373|title=Artist Sabra Field, a Life and Works in Retrospective|first=Rachel Elizabeth|last=Jones|website=Seven Days|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref> She then attended Wesleyan University, where she received her Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) in 1959. She was mentored at Wesleyan by Russell T. Limbach, who introduced her to printmaking.<ref name="auto3"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.irkmagazine.com/post/printmaker-sabra-fields-curiosity-is-relentless/|title=Printmaker Sabra Field's Curiosity Is Relentless|work=IRK Magazine |date=March 11, 2020|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref>
==Teaching career, move to Vermont, and print work== After college, Field taught art at several prep schools in Connecticut.<ref name="auto5">{{Cite web|url=https://www.middlebury.edu/museum/exhibitions/2017/sabra-field-now-and-then-retrospective|title=Sabra Field, Now and Then: A Retrospective |work=Middlebury College Museum of Art|date=May 26, 2017|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref> In 1969, she divorced her first husband and moved from Connecticut to Vermont with her two sons. They moved into the Tontine Building, a former 19th-century tavern in East Barnard.<ref name="auto"/><ref name="auto1"/> There she began working regularly on woodblock prints. She found Vermont conducive to work, stating that she "became part of a different culture where I could live and work at home in a quiet hamlet that was good for kids and without pretense."<ref name="auto1"/>
==Vermont Bicentennial; postage stamps== The Vermont Bicentennial poster contest selected one of her works for a 1975 exhibition in Washington, D.C.<ref name="auto4">{{Cite web|url=https://vtdigger.org/2025/01/01/how-1975-sparked-the-state-vermonters-are-in-today/|title=How 1975 sparked the state Vermonters are in today|first=Kevin|last=O'Connor|date=January 1, 2025|work=VTDigger|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref> The selection led to several commissions, including a 1977 series titled ''Mountain Suite'' for ''Vermont Life'' magazine.<ref name="auto5"/><ref name="auto4"/> The United States Postal Service released a postage stamp in 1991 commemorating the bicentennial of Vermont's admission to the Union in 1791 as the 14th state. It featured an image by Field of a "red barn, blue sky and green hills." More than 60 million of the stamps were sold.<ref name="auto1"/><ref>{{Cite news|last=Shullins|first=Nancy|url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19950625/2128085/vermont-artist-creates-a-state-of-perfection----sabra-fields-prints-considered-a-treasure-at-home|title=Vermont Artist Creates A State Of Perfection – Sabra Field's Prints Considered A Treasure At Home |work=The Seattle Times|date=June 25, 1995|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref>
==Art books and mural== Field was the subject of the books ''The Art of Place'' (2002) and ''In Sight'' (2004).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.benningtonbanner.com/arts_and_culture/sabra-field-marks-50th-year-making-vermont-art/article_75dbfa67-eaea-577b-905d-cc85d86685fc.html|title=Sabra Field marks 50th year making Vermont art|first=Kevin|last=O'Connor|website=Bennington Banner|date= December 13, 2019|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref> She installed a large-scale outdoor mural titled ''Cosmic Geometry'' on the east wall of the Wright Memorial Theatre on campus of Middlebury in 2010.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sevendaysvt.com/news/middleburys-sabra-field-mural-project-up-for-grant-2204710/|title=Middlebury's Sabra Field Mural Project Up for Grant|first=Pamela|last=Polston|date=June 7, 2010|work=Seven Days|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref>
==Film, children's book, and exhibition== ''Sabra: The Life & Work of Printmaker Sabra Field'', a documentary film exploring Field's life, was released in 2015. It was directed by Bill Phillips, a film professor at Dartmouth College.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/sabra-field-on-film-a-new-doc-celebrates-her-life-and-work/Content?oid=3084779|title=Sabra Field on Film: A New Doc Celebrates Her Life and Work|first=Ethan de|last=Seife|website=Seven Days|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref><ref name="auto1"/> In 2016, Field and Julia Alvarez published the children's picture book ''Where Do They Go?'' The book explores the subject of death and grief in rhyming poem.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/77750-social-and-emotional-learning-a-book-list.html|title=Social and Emotional Learning Booklist|first=Shannon|last=Maughan |work=Publishers Weekly|date=August 18, 2018|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/27/books/review/tims-goodbye-steven-salerno.html|title=How Do You Talk to Children About Death? These Books Can Help|first=Sophie|last=Blackall|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 27, 2018|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/entertainment/2016/12/08/julia-alvarez-sabra-field-book/95013608/|title=Julia Alvarez, Sabra Field unite for new picture book|first=Brent|last=Hallenbeck|website=The Burlington Free Press|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref> A retrospective show of Field's work was held at the Middlebury College Museum of Art in 2017. It featured 100 of her work from 1962 to the present.<ref name="auto1"/>
==Awards and honors== Middlebury College awarded Field its Alumni Achievement Award in 1984, followed by an Honorary Doctor of Arts in 1991. She was named an Extraordinary Vermonter by Vermont Governor Madeleine Kunin and received the Vermont Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts from Governor Howard Dean in 1999.<ref name="auto2"/>
==Selected commissions== *''Mountain Suite'' (1977)<ref name="auto5"/><ref name="auto4"/> *''Winter Twilight Norwich University'' (2018)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://vermontbiz.com/news/2018/september/08/norwich-launch-year-distinction-homecoming|title=Norwich to launch 'Year of Distinction' at Homecoming |work=Vermont Business Magazine|date=September 8, 2018|access-date=May 5, 2026}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Field, Sabra}} Category:Living people Category:21st-century American printmakers Category:Artists from Tulsa, Oklahoma Category:People from Windsor County, Vermont Category:Middlebury College alumni Category:Wesleyan University alumni Category:20th-century American illustrators Category:21st-century American illustrators Category:American stamp designers Category:21st-century American women artists Category:Artists from Vermont Category:American women illustrators Category:1935 births Category:20th-century American women artists Category:Women stamp designers