The Back Story
![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/637a245d6aea9f2da7426838/f28890df-92bb-4dd1-9d8a-0e53787a0cf4/melissa.jpg)
“Art-making is the practice of becoming your authentic self.”
— Nicholas Wilton
I have always loved art. All kinds. All forms. Born into a family of artists, I caught the appreciation for beauty and creating in life from my grandmother and mother. As soon as I could drive, I would take myself to museums to pore over art. There was peace and tranquility, much like in a garden, in every brushstroke, every sculpture, everything I saw. Later my love and passion for art saw its way through taking classes, teaching classes and workshops at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art in Augusta, Georgia. After starting a family, artistic inclinations were used in every classroom and school my children attended through designing gardens with fellow artists, organizing crafts and projects, and painting set designs, etc. In February of 2020, COVID shook something around like it did for most of us. The commitment and life adjustment was made to answer the call to create art full-time. Since then my works have been exhibited and purchased in the Augusta area, as well as chosen for juried shows in Virginia and North Carolina. With freedom and joy in creating as my methodology, my current work uses deconstructed books, papers, and vintage ephemera to bring together intuitive and thoughtful historic collages. The delicate nature and texture-rich material dating from the late 1800s and early 1900s make these collages rare and one of a kind, preserving bits and pieces from individual lives and history. A nod to those art history days.
I pray my art, whatever forms it takes, leaves viewers blessed, inspired, and most of all encouraged to start, begin again, or continue on their journey of becoming their authentic self through art.
The Studio Story
An out of the box idea that set my journey ablaze….
(read all about it in the 2023 issue of “In Her Studio” magazine HERE )