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Street signs, logos, flags (the origin and rules of heraldry are especially intriguing to me), colors, typefaces, all hyper-designed for a specific purpose, to create order or assimilation in one way or another. Often, I think about how visual standards and prompts direct us.

I experiment with these rules (proportion, color, iconography), with shifts in size, color, etc. to both draw attention to the intent of the original and create a bridge between what most consider two separate practices; art and graphic design.

- Sarah Shebaro, 2017

Sarah Shebaro is an artist, instructor and designer living in Knoxville, TN. Born and raised in Northwest Iowa, outside a town proclaimed the Popcorn Capital of the World. She received her BFA at the University of Iowa. In the years that followed, she headed east to Pennsylvania for a non-degree assistantship position at Bucknell University then south to receive an MFA in printmaking at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Post 2009 economic crash, she moved to Brooklyn, NY where she accepted a position at the Pratt Institute as the shop technician and assistant professor. In the four a half years there, she rehabilitated the print studios, paying extra special attention to the letterpress facilities.

Late 2015, she relocated back to Knoxville, TN teaming up to open Striped Light, letterpress studio and record label. Her work can be found at sshebaro.com and stripedlight.com.

* studio visit and photos by Ashley Layendecker