by jennifer hetrick
a pelican press by rembrandt joined the scenery of bertoia studio in 2007, becoming an addition in the toolbox. melissa strawser is a printmaker & sculptor working in the studio. her first sculpture dates back to 27 years ago. today, that very piece enhances her mother's garden.
she is a fifth generation artisan in a family better known for pennsylvania folk art, namely: brunner, gottshall, and strawser. studying overseas at the slade school of fine art at university college london years ago, strawser took mentorship in printmaking from the late robert blackburn of new york city and bartolomeu dos santos of portugal and london.
today, she works alongside val bertoia in his father’s old studio on the main street in bally. strawser came to bertoia studio in 1998, upon her return from london, and started coordinating art-projects of international scope. she assists bertoia studio with sculpture restoration projects but also houses her printmaking space there, establishing it in 2009 as the barto print workshop.
strawser works from her own cuts of copper plates in her printmaking, recently traveling to portugal for an international award of 'artistic residency' for the seventh evora printmaking festival where 20 of her intaglio prints were featured in a series called 'ascension from the sea,' sourced from a dream about barto dating back to 2008; the imaginary dreamscenes inspired her to tell curious stories through print after print.
while the two-dimensional art of her prints speaks in color, shape, and subject, her metal sculptures take on energy of their own, enlightening vision to see beyond the world of science and art in making huge forms from tiny creatures both winged and of many legs. strawser brings to life an exaggeration of the creature realm which magnifies the reasons why we should be in awe of their part in the natural world.
“i have always worked with paper first, because i’m a printmaker first: i love paper,” strawser says. “working with paper allows me to fabricate three-dimensional parts before forming the entire piece in semi-precious metals.”
“my pieces begin to make themselves,” strawser continues. “i am the catalyst; most of the direction for fabricating my work is sourced from meditation or dreamstate.”
( photographs of prints courtesy of melissa strawser )
she also weaves direction in her prints and sculptures from working alongside the incredibly encouraging and insightful engineer and artist, bertoia, whose mind balances well in line with hers while they coordinate art projects of all shapes and sizes.
“i am inspired by organic forms and designs found in plants, animals, amphibians, insects, corals, and aquatic life, and how light plays an integral part of how we perceive life in our natural world,” strawser says.
( photographs of prints courtesy of melissa strawser )
strawser gravitates to appreciating how creatures in nature carry their own special energy, made more apparent by just thinking of their percussional heartbeats. she finds herself enamored with their unfettered existences, grateful to see how glimpsing and pondering their bodily design and anatomical structure leads to looking deeper into the purpose of life and the meaning in humanity.
to learn more, visit melissastrawser.com
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