A hodophile is a lover of travel, a wanderer, a walker, a restless spirit: someone who travels to escape, walks to think, and wanders to learn about the world but moreover to repeatedly discover oneself. The works in Hodophilia are inspired by physical and psychic journeys: navigating labyrinthian footpaths on the island of Skopelos, Greece; climbing the sun-scorched hills of Santa Cruz, CA; and hiking in New Mexico’s Sandia Mountains.
What happens when you travel? Ideally, you step away from workaday cares, emails, leaky faucets, and sweeping the driveway. You can remake yourself, not only as a person without these trappings but also as someone full of curiosity, open to new opportunities, with fresh eyes to take in the world. These fresh eyes, along with a sturdy pair of shoes and a cell phone, help me build and maintain my studio practice; I use memory, impression, and my experiences as a traveler to cobble together an invented, non-traditional landscape.
Sarah Smelser has been an artist in residence at Vermont Studio Center; Franz Masereel Center, Artica Bilbao, Kala Art Institute, Jentel Artist Residency, Skopelos Foundation for the Arts, Anchor Graphics, Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Tamarind Institute, and Remarque Print Workshop. In 2022 she was a research associate at the Contemporary Print Media Research Center at University of California Santa Cruz. Her work is in such collections as Readers’ Digest Association, New York Public Library, Library of Congress, Hallmark Corporate Collection, Microsoft Corporate Collection, and Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts.
Smelser has had solo exhibitions in venues such as Bridgewater/Lustberg & Blumenfeld in New York City, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in New York City, Urban Institute for Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, and the LUX Center for the Arts in Omaha. Her work has been included in invitational and juried shows, and been shown at numerous art fairs including Art Frankfurt, Estampa Madrid, the Affordable Art Fair in New York, Art Miami, Red Dot Art Fair in New York and Miami, Art Santa Fe, Art Chicago, EDITION Chicago, Boston Print Fair, Baltimore Contemporary Print Fair, Editions/Artists’ Book Fair, and the Los Angeles Art Show.
Smelser’s work has been reviewed in Art on Paper: The Journal of Prints, Drawings and Photography, Abstract Art Online, Monotype, Monoprint, & Strappo Ezine and reproduced in New American Paintings. Smelser received her BA from University of California Santa Cruz, and her MA and MFA from the University of Iowa and is the 2022-24 Harold Boyd Endowed Professor in the Wonsook Kim School of Art at Illinois State University in Normal, IL.