Lillstreet Open House

Hello all-
Lillstreet's holiday open house is happening tomorrow 12/5 from 6-9pm. My studio will be open, but so will the entire building. It's always a really fun night, so I encourage you to come by and make your way through all 3 floors of gallery, classrooms, and studios. There will also be free activities for children if you'll be bringing any, so they can make their own art. You can go here for more information.

It's been a busy couple of weeks, so I don't have a new art image to show you. But I did recently rewrite my artist statement, so I will share that instead. So here goes:

I have always had a rich dream life, and a need to make these things I see in my head visible. I use art to squeeze them out like a saturated sponge of its water - to share with others, yes - but mainly to get them out so I can examine them. As a sensitive person living in the 21st century I am constantly soaking up the visual information that bombards us all daily. I believe that all these images are then filtered through my subconscious and shown back to me in dreams. I use visual language to create a plane of reality where seemingly disparate images come together to create a world unique to my experience. I paint and draw from my intuition and seek to distill dreams and memories to their most succinct expression. I allow the physical material I am working with stay fresh and alive so that the image I hold in my head and the material I use to put it to canvas or paper combine to create something that is neither pure abstract expressionism nor surrealism, but rather something in between. I'm telling stories, but the act of painting allows the narrative to evolve as it is told. It is a relationship that fills my life with constant surprise, joy, and terror.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

Melanie

Open Studio

I'm having an open studio this Saturday, so if you're in the Chicago area come on by and view my work both old and new. I'll be offering pieces for sale, and when I say sale I mean that you can walk away with original drawings for 10 bucks. My most ambitious project to date that was made with my own living flesh will be there as well to cute up the place.

November 22nd
12pm-5pm
Lillstreet Art Center
4401 N. Ravenswood 60640
Third Floor (across from the Print studio)

Hope to see you Saturday!

Birds

So, the birds came about because I saw a horrific event of crows eating baby robins out of their nest. I know crows have to eat, but I don't have to like watching and I can't help assigning human emotions to the mother robin watching her babies get eaten. Anyway, with tears in my eyes I went straight to my studio to make angry ink drawings about crows (as pictured to the left). I have now just become very interested in exploring the textures and properties of acrylic paints and then finding the birds in the marks and colors, as I've done with the painting below. It's from last week. That's all for now- Phin is covering me with kisses and it's difficult to type.

Be well,
-melanie

I am a painter living in Chicago, Illinois with my husband and infant son. I work mostly from dream and memory and will be posting work as it is completed. I've been learning to like acrylics instead of oil for the sake of my son's lungs. Speaking of my son, I've gotten very good at painting with him on my lap.

I've been working on a very small scale since he was born, since I find I only have spurts of 10 to 15 minutes of uninterrupted painting.

Here we are in the studio, and below is the latest painting. I'm finding motherhood to be a wonderful thing and am feeling very lucky to have a child who enjoys being in the studio with me. I often put paper underneath my painting so that he can draw right along with me.