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������ School of Fashion assistant professor, Melissa Campbell, is tackling fiber art in her most recent project that focuses on personal evolutions and how people evolve and become their true selves. 

“The fiber art that I do is inspired by the shifting nature of our personal evolutions.  I find the rhythmic structure that weaving imposes onto painted shapes is the perfect metaphor for this,” said Campbell. “A friend once said to me that we are always becoming more ourselves, and this series I’ve been working on, often reminds me of that saying.”

Since summer, Campbell has been working on a series of fiber art portraits of her friends and family members that focus on the evolving nature of their identities through life. One of Campbell’s most cherished pieces of the collection highlights her eldest child, Willow.

“One of the pieces that was in a show this summer is a portrait of my eldest child, Willow.  They recently had surgery to become more outwardly gender-neutral.  Currently, I am working on a series of portraits of friends and family members. Like the portrait of Willow, these works are disrupted or distorted versions of their familiar faces. They are in a state of change and capture the evolving nature of our identities and priorities,” said Campbell. 

Campbell’s work is can be seen in three exhibitions throughout the country: “Fantastic Fibers 2020” at the Yeiser Art Center in Paducah, Kansas; “Excellence in Fiber VI,” a digital exhibit from the New Bedford Art Museum based in Massachusetts; and “Mandatory Color,” a Surface Design Association (SDA) Juried Member Show at the Museum of Texas Tech University in Lubbock. Her collection recently took home the third-place prize at the SDA juried show. 

To learn more about assistant professor Campbell, please visit: /fashion/melissa-campbell