Melissa Hamer Selects

Madeline Von Foerster
""Redwood Cabinet"
oil and egg Tempera on Panel (24x32.5)
2008

Madeline Von Foerster’s piece tilted “Redwood Cabinet” is one out of a series of nine pieces dealing with “humanity’s often destructive relationship with nature”. She refers to the crisis of deforestation. The idea of what once was a living tree becoming a carved shape woman refers to those whose bodies have become cabinets, displaying actual species that depend on trees for survival. Foerster speaks of her work as “symbol for our way of relation to nature.” The cabinet resembles a barrier between nature and ourselves. Her reference to the destruction of the tree the going on during deforestation is one thing that intrigued me about her work. The way she has used this analogy between destruction and creation, in reference to a sacrifice, in a sense of an alter like structure is an appealing concept. I feel like she is telling a story of her personal beliefs on the deforestation that is occurring around us at all times. We as humans are always taking trees down to make way for something new, and in return we use the trees to build some other structures, much like the cabinet is referencing.

Luis Lorenzana

"The Agony of Poppy's Rejection"
Oil on canvas (24x24)
2008

Luis Lorenzana’s piece titled “The Agony of Poppy’s Rejection is a narrative love story. The use of the fancy beast, and the beautiful girl having rejected the creature is a play on the everyday guy trying to get the girl. I can relate to this piece in a sense that we all strive for things we may not be able to have, and when we find that we are rejected we feel ugly inside. The poor cute little creature trying to live his life, and the sadness in his eyes speaks to us about his sense of rejection. Much like in the beauty and the beast. His work has a fairy tale feel to it. What intrigues me the most about Lorenzanas work is his ability to react to things that he has heard and the feelings and emotions that he’s felt through the use of his paintings that resemble as if one were looking into a glimpse of another world.

Heather Nevay

"The Forgotten Mistress Woolfe"

oil on Board (13x8)
2008

Heather Nevay’s piece tilted “The forgotten Mistress Woolfe” portrays a lonely wolf girl, abandoned away with only her young. This piece is somewhat disturbing and intrusive at the same time. “Heather uses symbolism to express ideas of heroism, weakness, fear and the shifting balance of human relationships.” I see the wolf girl as a idea of what it is to be heroic in the sense that this girl has left everything and has become forgotten because her caring for her young. I feel this can often be the case when one has a child. I have seen many of my friends loose touch after this happens. It is something that takes them away from everything else, and puts them in new direction of life. It becomes less about oneself and more about the life of another. I like Nevay’s work because her characters put you in a space and force you to feel their emotion. The face expressions give it all away.


Melissa's Manifesto Drawing

My manifesto drawing is a comparison between reality and its interpretation in time and space. When I think of contemporary art I am reminded of what is going on around on around us in some way through someone else’s eyes. It is the reflection of what that artist is thinking about or is interested in at that time. I think our subconscious mind comes into play in this process, and can be though of after the artwork has been created, through interpretation. This drawing started out with a ladybug that was crawling on the wall above me. The ladybug can be seen as the observer, much like us, seeing everything around us but not always being seen. When there are several ladybugs it becomes more like a representation of all that is around us that we may or may not choose to see, and we become the observer. There is always an abundance of things going on around us at all times, and as an artist I choose to focus on what comes to me in a intuitive way through the use of the narrative form. I chose to use to mermaid as a mythological creature that relates to me in a sense from my birth association being a Pisces. Here the mermaid surrenders to the ladybugs, or (everything around here) giving in to contemporary art, and responding to a creation that exists, but hasn’t yet been interpreted into a piece.