We were lucky to catch up with Melanie Hopkins recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Melanie, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My most recent art project is the most meaningful to me as it’s the first sculpture I’ve made. For years I have been using ephemera and periodicals for my work and have made the occasional small assemblage from found objects, but I’ve always wanted to work in 3D. I got inspired by Ann Weber’s corrugated cardboard sculptures to find a way to repurpose some of my own cardboard refuse. Last year, after I learned about Jean Dubuffet’s “Hourloupe” doodle sculptures I was in awe of the scale as well as the freedom of the lines in those pieces. In the fall of ’23 I began collecting my cardboard food packaging in hopes that I could make a wall sculpture informed by both artists’ works. My project evolved once I learned of our local Art League’s annual “Fabulous Fakes” exhibit, for which artists create a whimsical version of a masterwork of their choosing. Instantly, I had a plan.

Before I started making my version of a Dubuffet “Hourloupe,” I had no idea how fulfilling working on a large scale could be. The finished sculpture is over six feet high and seven-and-a-half feet wide. I used reclaimed wood and upcycled Romex wire to build the skeleton of the sculpture. Then, from the ground up, I covered the frame with ‘shingles’ made from strips of the cardboard food packaging, securing each layer with staples. To give texture to the sculpture, I applied tissue paper over the shingles, then painted the surface with white and black acrylic paint. The armature is fitted with wheels so the piece can be moved more easily

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m a mixed media artist with a professional background in public broadcasting, graphic design and photography. I find comfort in the tactile nature of creating collages—the cutting, pasting and molding repurposed photos, magazine pages and ephemera, and adding found objects to create pieces with intricate patterns and interconnecting themes. I was born in the Mississippi River Delta, with roots in Alabama and Western Tennessee. In 2020, I moved from Los Angeles, where I began my art career, to Henderson County, North Carolina. I’m grateful to have my artwork at The Gallery at Flat Rock, where I’ve been represented since 2023.

To pay homage to nature, I create collages comprised of individual pieces of printed images of the sky photographed from all over the world, ranging from the early 20th century to the present time. I meticulously tear a single segment of sky curated from my periodicals collection and arrange a collage from these remnants to create a new sky. Each torn piece represents a different time and space. I glue the sky pieces onto a cradled wood panel using acrylic medium. My more abstract work includes a collage series of cascading stripes that focuses on color and pattern. In these pieces I create a layered background on a wood panel using paint, ephemera and tissue, which I then embellish with various mediums. I hand cut materials into strips and arrange the collected pieces on the prepped background until the composition feels right. I’m often rearranging the strips to create visually dynamic lines. This process can typically take weeks. As the final step, each collage is coated with a high-gloss epoxy resin and surrounded with a bespoke frame made from reclaimed wood. I feel my collages give new life to otherwise discarded materials through my creating something expressive and long-lasting.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to use repurposed materials. Most of my art supplies and materials come to me second-hand. I have rescued thousands of magazines, hundreds of pieces of costume jewelry, abandoned art supplies and the occasional found object “treasure” from the ground. I hope to give these items a new life in a piece of art. Now that the scale of my work is increasing I plan to include salvaged building materials and discarded product packaging.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I’m only now learning about arts grants which can provide a jump start to artists who have big plans but not a lot of cash. Through our local Art League I’ve learned about various grants offered by the North Carolina Arts Council, and I plan to apply so I can potentially explore bringing new ideas to life in my studio.

Contact Info:

• Website: .melaniehopkins.com
• Instagram: @melaniehopkinsart

Image Credits

Suzanne Camarata, Daniel Hopkins