We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Melanie Biehle a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Melanie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Becoming an artist was quite a journey. I wasn’t exposed to much art when I was growing up, but when I was 19 I started meeting working artists and other interesting creative types. They taught me a lot about art, design, music, and culture. Back then I always felt like being an artist was something that other people could do, but not me. It seemed way out of reach.

At the time I wasn’t producing any work of my own, or even really conscious that I’d surrounded myself with creative types. I spent a lot of time hanging out in my friend’s studio watching him paint, flipping through magazines that I’d never heard of before like I.D. and The Face, and observing what it was like to be a working artist, even though I didn’t realize I was paying attention.

It would be many years before these early experiences came back to me and I actually started painting. I didn’t become a professional artist until I was in my 40s.

I’ve always been obsessed with the mind and emotions, and deeply moved by beauty and meaning. I studied psychology in college and began my creative career first as a writer. Many years and careers later, I began working as a writer/photographer for an online magazine in Seattle and I covered a lot of art and design stories. At this point, I had dabbled in creating paintings and collages, but not consistently.

One weekend I signed up for an abstract composition workshop at a local art school to cover it for the magazine. And that was it. I was hooked! I signed up for an abstract painting class for the fall semester and slowly began shedding my past creative professions to become a full-time artist.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Sure! I’m an abstract painter currently based in the Seattle area. I live with my husband, our son, a dog, a cat, and two guinea pigs. I grew up in rural Louisiana and have spent most of my adult life on the west coast, alternating between Los Angeles and Seattle. No matter where my journeys take me, Louisiana, the Pacific Northwest and Southern California will always be part of who I am.

The abstract paintings that I create are inspired by the adventure and emotion of travel. I paint what places feel like, using patterns and color palettes inspired by Louisiana landscapes, Pacific Northwest mountains and forests, the coasts of California, New York City architecture, and Seattle city skylines. Impressions of the contrasting energy of city and sea are essential in creating my work — both in mood and content. Each painting is uniquely created to bring a particular type of energy to the spaces they occupy.

I studied psychology in college and began my creative career first as a writer. After working in Los Angeles as a screenwriter and film marketer, I returned to Seattle and eventually fell in love with painting. I studied abstract painting and composition at Gage Academy of Art and further honed my eye through freelance graphic design and photography assignments. Artists Richard Diebenkorn, Lee Krasner, and Joan Mitchell are major inspirations.

Today I create abstract paintings for private collectors, art consultants, and interior designers. Each piece is painted with the intention to calm or energize a space through the use of shape, color, and form. I license much of my work for print reproductions with high quality interior design partners. My work has also been licensed for photography backgrounds, digital art installations, apparel, and stationery.

A lot of emotion goes into my work. Painting is a joyful experience for me and I believe that my positive energy is transferred through my art into the homes and work environments of my collectors. My greatest hope is that you feel connected to and through my work.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Creating and sharing my art is a transfer of energy. Every experience that I’ve had has brought me to the place where I am now, and I am so grateful that I can create beautiful artwork to share my energy with others.

I like to begin my paintings with a feeling of generosity and gratitude – getting into that energetic space, knowing that what I create will ultimately be part of someone else’s life and home. I want the collectors who live with my art to feel love, joy, aliveness, gratitude, inspiration, and peace. I want to help them bring those emotions into their everyday life through the feelings they get or are reminded of from my artwork.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Keep the marketing part of your brain out of the studio.

Before I was a painter, I lived in Los Angeles and worked in film marketing. At the time I was also working on my own screenplays. The more time I spent helping other people market their movies, the less energy I had for my own work.

I didn’t end up staying in either field, instead I found painting later on in life. But since I was a marketer before I was a painter, at times that part of my brain has tried to overtake the creative side of my work. When my analytical brain starts throwing its weight around the studio with things like, “Yes, but who is going to buy this painting? How will you sell it? Where will it go?,” then it’s time for a break.

It’s important to think about marketing your work if you’re going to be a professional artist, but there’s a time and place for that sort of planning. It’s not when you’re in your studio working on your paintings. That’s the time to keep your mind and creative energy pure. Allow yourself to be inspired by what you’re creating and the process of making it, not by outcomes.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://melaniebiehle.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melanie.biehle.art/
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/melaniebiehleart
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniebiehle
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/melaniebiehle