Welcome
My name is Melissa and I live and create on the shores of Minot Massachusetts.
During the Covid-19 pandemic I found my medium in the gorgeous shores and beaches where I live. I am very blessed to have had this special place during these difficult times.
About Me and the Magic
The Artist
Artist, Mother, Teacher, and Mermaid. From the fields of Iowa as a child I have found myself now on the beautiful shores of the Atlantic with galaxies of colors at my feet. Beauty is all around us and nature was calling and leaving me love notes of inspiration to share with all of you. I have always known I was an artist and have been creating in one way or another all my life.
Hope
It is my hope that my art will spread joy to others. For it is in the sharing of the gift that the magic of art is found for me. May my art provide smiles, comfort, respite and inspiration. And most of all Hope. Hope for better tomorrows, and that we may all cherish the beauty of this place we call home. Its all around us even in the most ordinary things.
Helpers
I often have two little sets of feet helping me tell the stories.
They are very often my inspiration for the images that are created. You never know what places you might go when two little wild beautiful imaginations carry you on the wind. We travel the world on wings and clouds.
The Studio
Outdoor Rock Garden
My back porch slowly got taken over by rocks to become a canvas for many of the images. All summer with my basket on my hip I started collecting my colors and shapes. The pictures are large and ever changing. Impermanent and shape shifting to tell whatever the next adventure might hold. Many of the images are inspired by places that my children wanted to visit or learn about. And since Covid leaves us stuck in one place we decided to travel where ever we want in our imaginations.
Beach
The beach itself is often my canvas as well. It is fun to leave things for other visitors to find or for the tides to swallow up and toss back from water to shore.
Hearts
Our beach is full of magic and love. My favorite finds are all of our Minot hearts. You will find them featured sprinkled through out my work. Sometimes you have to search for them but they are always there. Gifts from the sea. My children and friends enjoy seeing how many of them they can find in the pictures.
Winter Studio
As the wind and weather groans and blows here in New England I moved some of my favorite finds to my indoor studio this winter. Hearts, mingle with sand beaten driftwood and rainbows of color.
More on the studio and work
Winter Studio
The winter studio got organized this week. My oh my that is a lot of rocks. So fun to have them all sorted and easy to reach now. So much more creating to come!
At Work in the Summer Studio
I get asked a lot about the scale of the images I create. I love working big and impermanent. The shifting and moving of the rocks is therapeutic. I think this quote from an anime Mushishi says it nicely.
"Today as every day, the sun sets and rises...
Flowers bloom throughout the area...
But they are not yesterday's flowers...
Yet today's flowers are just as beautiful... " --Ginko
Scale
Part of the beauty for me is working on a large scale. It is like doing a giant jigsaw puzzle of imagination. I sometimes have littles helping to show off the scale of the pieces. And reaching for old familiar rocks and shapes to help tell a new story brings a strange sort of peace and flow.