For Melanie, art is about connection, an expression of the journey of life and the offering of a higher understanding of communication. She is always curious and experimenting, yet finds her process to be the most integral part of her artmaking. Layers, thick texture, drips, colours, welcomed mistakes and the travelling of paint build the story of her paintings. Melanie's process reveals, conceals, and re-examines what we define as beauty like collecting evidence of life lived over time; the peeling of paint on walls and the hidden potential residing in discarded remnants. She is fascinated by the beauty found in organic marks made naturally without overthinking or correcting.
She writes "I have had the privilege of a life of creativity, an amazing art education and the opportunity to work hard at work worth doing. I have learned that life is complex and in a perpetual state of change and evolution. Nothing remains the same over any extended period. My optimism, my passion for art and my continual desire to create is reflected in every aspect of my work."
Melanie is often led by the revolutionary strategy originally put forward in the "Theory of the Dérive" (1956) by Guy Debord. The dérive is defined as "a mode of experimental behaviour linked to the conditions of urban society: a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances." It is an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban, in which participants drop their everyday relations and "let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there".
Melanie is an accomplished practicing and exhibiting contemporary artist and as a secondary visual art teacher, she is the Head of Visual Arts at one of Adelaide’s leading independent schools. Melanie’s original artworks have found homes in the USA, UK, Europe, Asia and across Australia.
www.melaniecrawford.com |
