Sharyn O’Mara

Sharyn O’Mara serves as Associate Professor, Program Head of Sculpture, and Director of Graduate Studies at Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Her interdisciplinary practice spans drawing, sculpture, glass, printmaking, and installation, investigating the intersections of language, materiality, and embodied loss through intimate collaborations with non-human companions.

Educational background:

• MFA, Rhode Island School of Design (1992)
• BA, George Washington University (1988)

Research Focus: O’Mara’s work centers on material traces of absence, using fragile residues like dog hair, nose prints, and cremains to explore unspoken connections in media-saturated culture. Her practice operates at thresholds between language and silence, employing ethics of care to translate vulnerability into visual form. Recurrent themes include interspecies attunement, the weight of unnameable loss, and sensory sediment of experience—where meaning emerges through tactile intimacy rather than symbolic representation.

Artistic Evolution: Recent works (2015-2018) demonstrate a cohesive trajectory: canine residues transformed into glass sculptures (Carbon Burnout series) and digital chandeliers materialize grief as structured light. The Chandelier series (2017-2018) converts nose prints into luminous abstractions, while 2016 vellum drawings embed sea salt and mica to evoke language’s fragility. Collectively, these works form a meditation on loss as embodied presence through innovative material alchemy.

Scientific Awards:

• Georgette and Richard Koopman Distinguished Visiting Chair in Visual Arts (Hartford Art School, 2017)
• New Glass Review 2003
• 25 Years of New Glass Review

As Director of Graduate Studies, O’Mara mentors MFA candidates in interdisciplinary studio practice while maintaining active exhibition presence. Her work resides in major collections including Corning Museum of Glass and Toledo Museum of Art, reflecting sustained institutional recognition. Though specific grant details aren’t documented, her inclusion in New Glass Review and international exhibitions indicates significant professional support.

Studio practice integrates domestic life with artistic production—Philadelphia-based collaborations with her two shepherds directly inform techniques like carbon burnout on glass, where biological residues become visual language through controlled combustion processes.