University of Delaware Office of Public Relations The Messenger Vol. 5, No. 2/1996 Abstractions on paper Sema Ohanian Mellian, Delaware '82, recalls drawing constantly as a child, but she had to wait many years before she could make art her career. Growing up in an Armenian family of seven in a two-bedroom house in Manhattan, she lacked support to pursue her art. Her parents felt there were enough starving artists in the world already and there was little money for art supplies. "But, I always had the love of art. I could sit and draw all day and never be bored," she remembers. Now a prolific artist in her 50s, specializing in handmade paper collages, lithography and pastel, Mellian is gaining renown. Her work has been shown at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Delaware Art Museum and countless regional galleries, and five pieces were bought for the ICI Americas corporate headquarters. Mellian's pieces have been accepted in many juried shows, yet she continues to be surprised and delighted when she wins an award. In high school, Mellian concentrated on costume design and illustration, and made signs for her father's tailoring business. After graduation, she worked at a pulp and paper company and attended Hunter College part-time. She continued to sketch and paint in her spare time while her two children, Mark and Elizabeth, were growing up and after the family moved to Delaware about 25 years ago. Finally, in 1975, she enrolled at Delaware, taking art classes that would lead to a degree in fine arts with a minor in art history. She threw herself into her schoolwork. "If I was told I needed to make five prints, I would make seven or 10," she laughs. "I wanted to get everything I could out of my courses." Being around the younger generation at college was an eye- opening experience for Mellian. She became a "mother image" in the art department, and, she says, listening to students half her age helped her understand her own children's frustrations. In fact, she and her son, who majored in civil engineering, graduated a day apart. It was on a field trip to a print show in New York that Mellian decided she wanted to be a printmaker, and, over time, she has developed her own methods and techniques, working in a large, well-lighted basement studio in her home on the outskirts of Newark, Del. Some pieces start out as prints of her husband's photographs, while others begin as monoprints ("one time through the printer"). She creates a multi-layered effect by adding scraps of plain or printed handmade paper, then touching up with pastel crayons. Continually experimenting with new materials, she recently started a lace series in which lacy images are printed on both the background and the handmade paper. One of Mellian's distinctive techniques is her use of handmade paper. She starts by tearing up pieces of new cotton paper or her own discarded works, which she mixes in a blender with water, pigment and either clay powder or paste. Then, she pours this "cotton fiber" mixture into a large tub and stirs in more water. The resulting pulp is strained through a screen and dried on felt pads. The pulp sticks together in thin sheets and becomes a rough-textured, speckled paper that she glues onto canvas to create her collages. Although some of Mellian's work is realistic, she prefers the abstract because it provides many different levels for the viewer that aren't immediately evident. "Even when I do realism, I add the handmade paper so you look further into it," she explains. She signs her works simply "Sema." Mellian also teaches classes at the Newark Senior Center, runs workshops at the Center for Creative Arts in Yorklyn and substitute-teaches at Sanford School in Hockessin, Del. One of the advantages of her career, she says, is that there's no pressure to retire. "As artists we can work until we drop. There's no age limit." -Valerie Baddorf