If there is an underpinning of hidden or symbolic meaning in Melissa Forman's She Who Flies With Cranes (and we strongly suspect there is), we'll tackle it another day. Right now we just want to bathe our eyes in the exquisite compositional balance of this painting. A woman (beautiful to the point where beauty itself is an emotion rather than a notion of appearance) faces two cranes enraptured by her gentle charm. The color scheme is a fluid harmony of black and white. What the woman is enjoying (perhaps?) is not a physical reflection of her being, but a metaphysical one - as if her eyes had discovered a magical mirror that chose to render up an avatar of the soul. That, of course, might be the underpinning we presumed was present. Regardless, our vision is still happy with what IT is privileged to see here. – Robert del Valle
Discuss This Run
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/
