The juxtaposition of Hark's work surrounded by the museum's artifacts was wonderful and thought provoking. Hark's battered and textured surfaces mirrored the look of the aged papers, books, and tools on view, erasing distance of time. Hark's rich colors communicate an organic origin. There is no sense of the synthetic. The substrate is the art; the marks and gestures of the human hand dance across the surfaces to further enliven the paper while allowing the paper to hold its own voice. There is a distinct topography reflected in Hark's paper work; a response to her life experience in Central Minnesota and South Central Wisconsin as well as Kumasi, Ghana, where she has spent time every year since 2006 at the Kumasi Center for Book and Paper Arts. Hark uses raw flax and recycled linen as the materials to build her paper. She constructs paintings, balancing paper, textiles, paint, and collage. On a quilt-like structure, areas of hand stitching travel in and out of the support in contrast with thick paint and wax. The rich surfaces tell stories of use and age as if they have lived long, reviving previous lives to tell of past escapades. They are heard again, listened to by intimates with rapt attention.  

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