Sara Method, the new art professor at Goshen College, got the first of her three degrees “at a small liberal arts college [sic] not unlike this one.” She has practiced and studied art throughout her life, growing up in Virginia before moving to North Carolina. 

“As a kid […] I would always ask people what I should draw on those long road trips we took as family […] and I stuck with it!” Method said, reflecting on what led to her becoming an art instructor. 

She has an extensive background in studio art and art history, having studied at Salem College, the University of Notre Dame and Western Carolina University. 

Her artistic specialties are printmaking and drawing, though she has dabbled in writing in her recent personal projects. 

“I found that when I had children, I had to slow down and notice patterns and details around me,” Method said, citing nature as her main source of artistic inspiration. She has collaborated with poet Catherine Carter on a printed broadside of Carter’s poem “Luna.”

Outside of art and teaching, Method enjoys listening to podcasts and watching documentaries. “I like to take in as much information as I can,” she said.

She has also recently taken up quilting. “I’ve been working on a quilt in honor of my great-grandmother who taught me how to quilt when I was four,” she said. “[That was] when she first let me put stitches in a quilt. I’ve been trying to recreate that experience, and I’ve been working on this quilt for the past two years.”  

The pandemic hit just when Method had wrapped up her graduate studies. That put further studies on hold, and she no longer had a studio. 

“The first year, I didn’t really make anything because I was just processing everything that had happened,” she recalled. When her creative spark returned but she still lacked a studio, Method turned to smaller projects that were easily portable. 

Method was brought to this campus because she felt a strong sense of connection to GC’s campus.

“My husband grew up in Goshen, and both of my kids were born in Goshen Hospital,” she said, “so I was [somewhat] familiar with Goshen College.”

Method initially enrolled in GC’s graduate program, hoping to earn a master’s degree in environmental education, but the pandemic disrupted her plans once again for the better.

“I was so enamored with the people I had met through that process and what Goshen College is,” she said. “As soon as I saw there was an opening in the art department, I applied right away, and I am so glad that it worked out. It has been an excellent experience so far.” 

This semester, Method is teaching Drawing, Painting, and Digital Design. In the spring, she will also teach Figure Drawing.