#sparkchamber 030623 — Melissa Meier
“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” So said the wise man Albert Einstein, and so inspires our #sparkchamber today as we welcome visual poet Melissa Meier. Internationally recognized for her evocative 3-dimensional installations, found-object sculptures, collages, and photography, Melissa’s work confronts social and spiritual issues by incorporating mixed-media sculpture into narrative assemblage. She is constantly working with new processes and structure. With her Laced series, using wood putty and graphite, she incised vintage doily patterns on the faces of female subjects she photographed “mug-shot style” in natural light. Doily patterns are a symbol of elegance, femininity, and propriety … with a side of repression — think stuffy tea parties in the Victorian era, where women were constricted by far more than their binding outfits. The final images, evocative of Maori warrior facial tattoos, are at once sexy and intimidating, evoking true strength and power.
Her latest work, Skins, furthers female portraiture, using harvested raw materials — “I use Palm sticks, sunflower seeds, eggshells, pistachio shells, acorns, pasta, anything that is organic” — Melissa transforms nature’s offerings into wild, wondrous, and often wearable works of art. “The costume is like the person is becoming nature. When I’m working with the materials, I feel like I am becoming that material.”
Quoting from Deborah Bishop’s deep-dive into her work from the Winter 2022 issue of American Craft magazine, “The Skins project was sparked in 2012 by a magnolia tree dropping its big, glossy green-and-gold leaves onto Meier’s lawn in Santa Monica, California. “Each leaf had its own unique shape and pattern — they were so beautiful, and I wanted to find a way of working with them,” says Meier, who stitched the leaves together by hand, affixed them to a mesh underlining for structure, and created an outfit for her daughter, Sofia, who was 8 at the time. Designed with tiers of overlapping leaves sweeping down from a strapless bodice and paired with a fantastical cone-shaped hat trailing a swooping tail, the creation was like an illustration from a fairy tale or a fragment of a half-remembered dream.
“Although that dress has long since crumbled into compost, it lives on in the moody photographs Meier took of her daughter. More than mere documentation, these collectible portraits breathe life into the inert — allowing Meier to contextualize the sculptures and imbue them with a narrative power and emotional resonance.
“Viewed as a body of work, Meier’s Skins photography describes an alternate mythological universe or ancient matriarchal civilization populated by goddesses, warriors, queens, and sprites. These images meet the viewer’s projections halfway, all but demanding our personal interpretations. A woman wearing a flowing hooded cloak made of black river stones radiates a Game of Thrones–meets–Rick Owens primal strength. Another — her face covered by a fencer’s mask sprouting porcupine quills — evokes a fierce Boudica, the Celtic warrior leader. The ice queen clad in white faux-fur garments [lifted for the photo by wires, to appear wind-swept] might have blown in from Narnia, while an elaborate outfit made of a grotto’s worth of seashells [gathered after a hurricane on a Florida beach by Meier’s parents] appears to enrobe Venus rising from the sea. And Sofia’s posture when wearing a Medusa head made of writhing, sunflower-seed snakes with open red clay mouths manages to convey the vulnerability of the oft-maligned gorgon.“
Tribal ritual or the future of fashion, the Skins series asks the question: is there a difference?
An important aspect of Melissa’s is the temporal one, “My artwork has a very short lifespan, it’s fragile but I do love that it doesn’t last forever — I am excited to create something beautiful but then I am also ready to let it go. I just want people to appreciate what is around us, how fragile it is and how delicate it is. Spend time looking at nature rather than just passing by it.”
If you’re in southern California, you have the opportunity to view her work — both the 3-dimensional forms as well as large scale photography — at her Becoming Nature exhibit at the Oceanside Museum of Art March 11 through June 23. Or, follow along on Instagram.
1.] Where do ideas come from?
My ideas come from my relationship with nature and my dreams. The two are intertwined.
2.] What is the itch you are scratching?
To me, creating art is a form of meditation. It’s less about expressing an idea to the viewer and more about inspiring myself. Of course, receiving a positive reaction from an audience is the icing on the cake.
3.] Early bird or night owl? Tortoise or hare?
I am definitely an early bird hare. Mornings are when I have the most energy and the lighting is perfect for creating my detailed work. I start my day with an early walk with my husband and dog, and then go straight to the studio. I am often so excited about my projects that I can’t stop constructing until I see exactly what I initially envisioned. Working quickly also helps me take risks — I follow my instincts and never overthink the process.
4.] How do you know when you are done?
When I can touch what I’ve envisioned, that’s when I know I‘m done.
