Melissa Harshman, Professor of Art and Area Chair for Printmaking and Book Arts, has returned from presenting the paper "Material Encounters: Sewing and Printmaking in Contemporary Practice" at the Impact 10 Conference in Santander, Spain. She will also presented her work at the Open Portfolio sessions.

Below is the abstract for Harshman's presentation:

Printmaking and Fabric Arts have a long history of intersection especially in the field of textiles. Both areas include block printing, screenprinting, and other transfer methods. In this presentation, I plan to discuss the use of traditional printmaking methods such as relief, letterpress, and screen printing with processes associated with textiles such as crochet and sewing. I will discuss how this confluence creates a new narrative for the viewer. All of the artists discussed employ the strategy of installation work as well as more traditional 2-D pieces in their studio practice. I will present the work of five artists: Melissa Harshman, Hannah March Sanders, Blake Sanders, Johanna Norry (Dodd alum, MFA 2018), and Sandra Fernandez.

• Harshman is a printmaker who incorporates sewing and crochet in her work to enhance the aesthetic experience of the viewer. Sewing techniques also allow her to transform paper into materials that emulate leather and fabric for installation projects.
• Hannah March Sanders and Blake Sanders collaborate on pieces which include crochet, printed pieces and recycled materials to address environmental concerns as well as other societal issues.
• Johanna Norry is a fabric artist who incorporates printed imagery in her textile work to create new interpretations of existing narratives using historical documents and images. 
• Sandra Fernandez interplays textile processes with printmaking to explore issues of immigration and other politically charged situations.

All of these artists use printmaking and textile processes to enhance their work. I will present the different methods and contextual relevance of the processes in each artist's work to examine the variety of ways of sewing and other textile applications enhances the printed material aesthetically and conceptually.

Harshman received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin- Madison in 1992. She has taught in the Printmaking and Book Arts area at the Lamar Dodd School of Art since 1993. In early 2018 Harshman received a Willson Center for Humanities and Arts Research Fellowship, during which she spent the month of January at the Penland School of Crafts Winter Residency. Additional upcoming exhibitions include Home Tour at the Albany Museum of Art and Me, You, and a Few of My Friends at Georgetown College.