News……
Infinite Guile:
Sarah Smelser’s
New Monotypes
Quad Cities Art Center
Rock Island, IL
December 8, 2023 - January 26, 2024
Short and sweet news story on Thrasher exhibition from Illinois State University’s School of Communications
Interview with Curator Shahrbanoo Hamzeh for Thrasher exhibition in the Joe McCauley Gallery at Heartland Community College, Normal, IL.
Thrasher
October 16 - December 16, 2023
Joe McCauley Gallery, Heartland Community College, Normal, IL
A thrasher, also called a thresher, is an outdated farm machine for separating the seeds of a crop from their husks and straw. The process of threshing is a metaphor for separation and change: leaving home, heading to college, or having a transformative experience. Thrasher is also the title of a Neil Young song I listened to obsessively in college. It marks his decision to leave the band he was in at the time and head off to pursue his solo career in earnest. Though I find the habit pedestrian, I often use song lyrics or titles as inspiration for works, and I couldn’t resist nodding to his sentiments as I returned to the place where I first stepped away from the safety and constancy of my parents and hometown.
The works in Thrasher were made while I was a research associate at the Contemporary Print Research Center at UC Santa Cruz, my alma mater.
https://www.heartland.edu/artgallery/Thrasher.html
October 17 - December 2, 2022
Campus Tour
Sarah Smelser
MIAD Prints is an exciting printmaking event taking place September 26 – October 1, 2022. Twelve artists are invited to spend one week at MIAD producing one of a kind prints (monoprints) in collaboration with students. Students will have the opportunity to assist and work alongside each artist. At the end of the week, there will be an exhibition and reception for faculty, staff and students, as well as the public, to view the work created during the residency. Two choice prints from each artist will be donated to MIAD and auctioned to raise funds for student scholarships.
MIAD Prints aims to bring together a diverse group of artists in terms of gender, race, age and cultural background.
In 2018, MIAD Prints brought artists from Ireland, Mexico, Minnesota, New York, Arizona and Wisconsin. Some individuals were trained print artists while others were self-taught or had no prior printmaking experience.
The MIAD Prints 2022 exhibition will be held in MIAD’s Community Hub & Gallery with a free, public reception on Friday, September 30 from 6 – 8 p.m.
Gallery talk for Morning Walk at LUX Center for the Arts:
Trace monotype demonstration at PRoM Conference, Laramie, WY
