About Melody |
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As a child Melody dabbled in many creative artforms. Imagine four twelve-year-old girls locked in a bathroom at school recording their songs on a reel-to-reel tape recorder, a sixteen year old wearing a gorilla mask and directing traffic in a busy high-school hallway, and shooting photographs for a book about ski touring with children, or an eighteen year old choreographing dances and performing in a modern dance troupe. That is how Melody spent the formative years of her life.
As an adult Melody has been no less diverse in her interests. Studying art and music in college led to twelve years of playing bass and writing songs with a rock band, seventeen years of teaching art and music to elementary students and decades of creating and showing her visual art. She received her BFA at Metro State University in Denver Colorado, MA of Integrated Arts from Lesley College Massachusetts, attended graduate school for interdisciplinary arts at Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois, and Goddard College in Vermont. She has also studied encaustic painting with Francisco Benitez, and Victoria Eubanks, cold wax oil painting with Dianna Fritzler, performance art with Goat Island at the Chicago Institute of Art and attended songwriting workshops at the Glen Workshop. She has performed with Martha’s Wake, the Rocky Mountain Ukulele Orchestra, Arvada Chorale and continues write and performing her original songs.
Melody’s visual artwork focuses on her experience as a woman, both in society and within her own skin. Her creative process is central to her artwork. It starts when she becomes curious about a concept. Then reflects on the idea, and finally takes a creative action. The concept of the artwork, and the discovery of its meaning, is often more important than the media itself.