Melanie’s Creatures

Apparently this is exploration week. A lot of people are out trying other artist’s techniques or pushing their own forms. And there has been a lot of sharing!

I was particularly excited to see this new work by Melanie West. Although it’s not a series of disks as we have been seeing this past week or so, we are still in the arena of stacked forms. Here’s Melanie’s description of this curious creature: Chiton Brooch in Brown and Crimson polymer, formed, carved and laminated, clasp is magnetic.

That’s pretty straight forward, not at all alluding to the otherworldly feel or mysterious intent of this particular entity. But she does call it a chiton, which is a form of mollusk with overlapping plates. But regardless of the mollusk inspiration, Melanie’s forms all tend to be this way–heavily organic and appearing to be living creatures, undulating and moving through space. This wonderful sense of movement comes from the structure of her forms, moving from small to wide and often back to a slimmer form again. That and her lines–sometimes literal in the canes she applies, sometimes showing themselves in the edge of her elements–which skate, slither and wriggle, are where we get that sensation that her pieces are alive.

Melanie has a lot of beautiful newer work on display around her website, so do go take a look at Melanie’s particular zoo.

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