This recent painting by Melissa was featured at Roc La Reu Gallery on their 13th Anniversary.
Melissa's figures are strangely perfect and almost frozen in their expressions and poses. They evoke a traditional sense of etiquette and grace while reaching outside of their image to provide a window into something deeper and far more human. While these mysterious, and sometimes withdrawn, figures were created from photos of friends and family of the artist, they are not meant to represent themselves; rather, they portray emotional states and aspects of the human psyche.
Melissa has carefully calculated each representation by changing colors and manipulating features to evoke a mysterious and sentimental mood. Alienated from their real world and time, these images become metaphors for emotional and psychological states. They exist as a product of her pursuit to create beauty and recognize the elegance and sincerity of genuine human emotion.
This gallery-quality print is an excellent representation of her most recent body of work. It will also be particularly fitting in an ornate frame. Browsing her website (below), you can get an idea of what her pieces look as a finished work, hanging on the wall.
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About the Artist
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Melissa Forman spends her time creating a richly visual world filled with characters created from an opulent, mysterious, and often eerie imagination. Her lovely, idealized figures seem lost in their own worlds, drifting between the l8th, 19th and 21st centuries. Created from a mix of appropriated imagery from times long past and modern photographs from her personal collection, her portraits draw from obvious traditions in the genre but take on a life of their own.
Melissa has been drawing and painting commissioned portraits since she was 14. She attended the Columbus College of Art and Design and graduated with a BFA in 2002. She now lives and works in Cleveland, Ohio. Her personal work has been show in galleries around the world, from New York City to Seattle, LA, and Berlin to Bristol.
Find out more @ http://www.melissaformanstudio.com/
