Today we’d like to introduce you to Melanie Reese
Hi Melanie, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I find that asking an artist “how it all started” is such a difficult question to answer, because for most of us, it’s such an enigma of a journey; art has been a part of us, a part of our lives from the very beginning with no real start and, likely, no real end.
Drawing and coloring has always been something I loved doing as a child; it kept me busy for hours and helped with anxiety throughout my high school years. I began on the advanced track in middle school, went on to AP Art in high school, and, when applying to colleges, it was important for me to find a liberal arts program that had a great arts department. That’s how I ended up choosing Skidmore College. However, even then, I didn’t realize I would want to major in studio art until I took my first college art course––color theory. I just immediately fell in love with it all and realized I needed art in my life, forever.
But the art life is rarely, if ever, a straight path. After Skidmore I went on to get my Post-Bacc from San Francisco Art Institute and my MFA from the School of Visual Arts. It was after grad school that I realized art alone was not profitable enough to allow me to live in NYC so I took my Type A personality to wall street and worked as an Executive Assistant for 3 years, hardly making any artwork at all.
When COVID hit, I realized I needed to live the life I wanted to live––an art-focused life––and quit my job (only partially, I still work part-time as an assistant) to focus on my studio practice. For the past 3 years, my practice has been my main focus and priority… that is until I gave birth to my first child this past December. Right now my world is focused on my baby and letting my body recover. The new challenge now is how to navigate bringing my two loves together, being a mother and an artist. That is what comes next for my journey!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Aligned with the point I made above, an artist’s path is rarely, if ever, straight and/or clear. My path has been like all other artists, crooked and bumpy, though entirely unique to my own experience all the same.
Though I will say this, the struggles I experienced as an artist are not too dissimilar to those struggles experienced by all people, across any life path. Similar to most people across all disciplines, I feel like my biggest hurdles have always come right after graduating from both my undergraduate and graduate studies. I am sure most readers can identify with the refrain, “Ok, so, now what?!”, diploma in hand. For an artist, however, that gaping feeling of “uselessness” is reiterated and validated by society’s whimsical ideals surrounding the arts. You’re met with a big, “well, you’re supposed to ‘starve’ in order to be considered authentic, so there are no applicable jobs in this world for you.” You’re left untethered in a windstorm and expected to ground yourself by being brilliantly creative––it’s exhausting if not impossible.
So like most artists, I worked small, menial jobs fresh out of undergrad before deciding I wanted to go back to school. I, like many, perhaps used graduate school as a desperate act to feel purposeful rather than an act of actual purpose. So not surprisingly, when that masters degree was achieved, that similar feeling of, “ok, so now what?” came rushing back. In school you are not taught any ‘art as business’ skills so you’re left to figure that crucial piece of the puzzle out yourself. Abandoning art all together, and a desperate act to afford my own life, led me to working as an executive assistant where I both made money and learned important business skills. Armed with both three years later, I finally felt equipped enough to truly face the studio artist windstorm head on. And here we are, four years after that; still blowing in the wind, but I’ve hoisted my sail and am enjoying the ride.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a Brooklyn-based abstract painter. Lines, shapes, colors, and textures are as central to my work as is the process of creating them. Moving between abstract elements and familiar structures allows my work to echo the representational through symbolic formalism.
My most recent work, the Delta Daydreams series, focuses on my experience in the Mississippi Delta. A time spent surrounded by a dark, mysterious nature, seemingly suspended in time, and drenched in water inspired an investigation of body and landscape. Embracing the body as the vessel and nature as the foundation of human existence, I seek to generate conversations around the fraught relationship of humans and nature. To do so, I utilize an array of water-based media such as acrylic paint, Caran D’Ache, and water-soluble oil pastels. Manipulation of each material creates a variety of textures and explores expression through color, line, and form.
My observations are a particular confluence of quiet distilled down forms and bold textures that, when thoughtfully constructed, my paintings become narrative. They tell a tale of the battle between “progress and destruction”, exploring the complex dichotomy between the human experience and our crumbling world.
How do you think about happiness?
Making art, being with my family, sharing my art with others, and helping other artists showcase their art are all things that make me happy. So, loving and helping the people I care about and being an artist is what make me happy.
Helping people realize their goals and potential is such a wonderful feeling. I do this by volunteering in community-based art opportunities. I am on the committee for my Brooklyn neighborhood’s yearly Open Studios event, which helps local artists connect with local art lovers and I have also been a curator of several exhibitions that help highlight talented local artists. Seeing how grateful all these artists are to be included in such wonderful opportunities to share their work with people is always such a wonderful and fulfilling experience.
Pricing:
- Paintings between $900-$7,500
- Drawings between $125-$300
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.melreese.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melaniereese
Image Credits
The first 2 images (with me in them):
Photo by MacKenna Lewis Photography
https://mackennalewis.com/