deborah.haynes@colorado.edu
303-735-4206
office:Fleming 305

Research and Teaching interests include creativity and contemplation, especially the integration of contemplative practices into higher education, the function of the arts in contemporary society, and the moral philosophy of M. M. Bakhtin.

Education
PhD, Harvard University, 1991
MTS, Harvard Divinity School, 1986
MFA, University of Oregon, 1977
BFA, University of Oregon, 1972

Selected Publications
Books (Author)
Book of [THIS] Place: Art, Spirituality, and the Land, under review
Art Lessons: Meditations on the Creative Life, Westview Press, 2003
The Vocation of the Artist, Cambridge University Press, 1997
Bakhtin and the Visual Arts, Cambridge University Press, 1995; ; reissued in paperback, 2008

Books (Editor):
Opening Our Moral Eye, by Mary Caroline Richards, Lindisfarne Press, 1996
The Subjective Eye: Essays on Gender Art, and Religion,co-edited with Janet Carlson, James Smith III, and Richard Valantasis, Wipf and Stock, 2006

Journal (Guest Editor)
Frontiers, A Journal of Women Studies, Issue 19 (1998), Identity, the Body,
& the Menopause
Frontiers, A Journal of Women Studies, Issue 26 (2005), Gender, Race, and Information Technology, co-edited with Deborah Keyek-Franssen and Nina Molinaro

Current Projects:

 [THIS] Place: a project by Deborah J. Haynes, November 2008
I am a multi-disciplinary conceptual artist and writer. My present project, [THIS] Place, has three interrelated aspects: 1) ongoing work on a one-acre parcel of land, which includes carving marble and developing a contemplative garden on the site; 2) a book manuscript that has evolved out of eight years of writing about place, identity and community; and 3) drawing and stone work.

1. Site work. In 1998 my longtime companion and I purchased a one-acre parcel of land located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Adjacent to a creek in Jamestown, Colorado, the site was known as Ivydell for many years because of a small wooden sign that hung over the cabin's front door. I have come to identify the site simply as "[THIS]Place." Besides the house, there are four other structures, as well as an underground sanctuary. Here I have planted gardens, created a circumambulation path, and established a stone yard, where I carve words in marble and work on stone sculpture. Perhaps the most direct way to describe my stone work is this: I work at the intersection of the contemplative and the ecological. My contemplative practice includes yoga asana and pranayama, walking and sitting meditation, drawing and stone-carving. My ecological values are strongly linked to what I would term a philosophy of place.

2. Book manuscript. Place is an ontological category: it defines us in multitudinous ways. Book of [THIS] Place explores what this means in 22 short chapters. Based in eight years of research about issues related to the site--issues such as climate and weather, topography and geography, history and natural history--the book also grows out of keeping a detailed visual and written journal about experiences here. The chapters address topics such as the following: antecedents and influences, including traditions of gardens and land art; sacred space; water; virtues such as patience and discipline; hope; impermanence and death; and vocation. While these topics vary greatly, each chapter opens with an “epi-eikon,” a photograph of a stone I carved with pertinent text and which provides a visual point of reference for what follows. 

3. Drawing and Marble Carving. I have been working for several years on three major drawing series. Cantos for [THIS Place may be read as topographical maps and as a visual record of experiences on the site; including constructing a circumambulation path; using that path for contemplative practice; and observing natural phenomena such as flora, fauna, and the various manifestations of water, especially clouds, snow, and ice. Another theme that pervades the Cantos is expressed in four urn forms. The experience of place is a powerful reminder of impermanence, yet being-in-place also provides solace in the face of suffering, death, and loss. Similar themes dominate in a second series titled Meditations on Impermanence. The third series is titled Marking Time. Most of these drawings are done over periods from two weeks to two years, and use symbolic iconographic languages to explore contemplative practice over time. Since 2000 I have also been carving words in marble, most of which comes from the quarry in Marble, Colorado. I began to work on marble by carving Greek and Latin words on small wedges of stone: temenos, vocatio, amor fati. Sacred precinct, calling, love of fate. In historical locations from the Samothracian sanctuary to Sardis, stone inscriptions provide us with knowledge about the ancient past. Now I carve words and phrases on marble monoliths and place them around the site.