Mary Hark
American, b. 1956; taught at UW-Madison 2007-present
Lives and works in Madison, Wisconsin
Take Time Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Edition of 50
Honoring the work of Ghanaian palm wine musician Koo Nimo, this multipart book includes a recording of his group, Adadam Agofomma (Roots Ensemble) and a suite of three etchings and relief prints on Hark’s handmade linen paper. Hark used pulp-mulberry, cashew, papyrus and other fibers harvested in Ghana to make additional paper for the publication. Letterpress printing was done by Hark and Jana Pullman (UW–Madison alumna) at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts.
Mary Hark is a professor of Design Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A faculty member since 2007, she also teaches papermaking in the Art Department. She received an MA from the University of Iowa, where she was an assistant to master papermaker Tim Barrett. There, excited by the creative process that transforms materials, she began treating paper like a textile and approached textiles with a painterly attitude. For example, she created wall-mounted “constructed paintings” of paper and textiles. Next she earned her MFA in fiber and material studies at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Hark taught for over 15 years at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and she was an artist-in-residence at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, where she collaborated on artists’ books. In 2006, she traveled to Ghana on a Fulbright research scholarship and found that pulp mulberry plants, ideal for making paper, were threatening local plant life. With funding from the UW, she has returned multiple times to Ghana to teach locals how to make paper using the plants. She is the proprietor of HARK! Handmade Paper Studio and founding director of the Kratta Foundation, which promotes sustainable papermaking using pulp mulberry plants.
