This site shows my past works

For new works please visit

www.melissawyman.info

Taking Flight

there will be another show

this one
a collaboration
with
mica

more information
to come

world doodles

Hey World–

Join the world of doodles!
I’m collecting doodles from around the world and posting them on this blog site.

http://worlddoodles.blogspot.com

If you have any doodles from super detailed to supersimple – please e-mail me a photo.

Any kind of doodle will do - squiggles, loose figures, faces, absent-minded writing, political doodles, flower doodles… what ever you consider a doodle.

I’d like to collect these as an ongoing project.They can be your doodles, someone else’s doodles, found doodles ...(etc).

Please include the city and country they originated in and any other information you would like.
– if you have a website or a blog that you would like toadvertise with your doodle or a comment to put withyour doodle –please include it.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you. All the best!

Melissa

Another day time doodle

Yes – I still draw horses…
- but only during meetings.

letter to the editor

Editor Dominion Post

Thank you Ray Mahabir for bring Wellington the Mulana Project

(25 Jan) I attended a workshop by Ray Mahabir with 6 other Wellington-based artists at the Wellington Arts Centre. TV3 News gave a glimpse of the workshop and the exhibition of beautiful tapestries showing the art of the traditional embroidery that Ray Mahabir is reviving through the Mulana Project.

In the workshop we learned about the women who do embroidery in West India and their art form that has been passed down through generations. Sadly their technique is being lost due to tourist demand for cheap, quick work. This project is drawing attention to the beauty and quality of the art. We saw how young people living in London have responded to the project through words and imagery. We engaged in a group discussion of identity and develop our own designs that will be embroidered by the same women in India making a beautiful large tapestry that will be brought back to New Zealand in a year. This hands-on workshop opens up possibilities of dialogues, discovery, and cross-cultural exchange. Material travelling distances and passing through hands can bring awareness of people in the world, our wonderful similarities and differences, and most of all, our connections on this global tapestry.

I’d like to say thanks to Ray Mahabir for bring us the workshop and to The Wellington Arts Centre for actively creating and hosting opportunities for engagement and discovery.

Melissa Wyman
Wellington artist

all-day-doodle

The makings of a Superhero

to-Do List

Review of Threadbare

This was from a review of Threadbare in The TLC Newsletter

“For me, one of the most poignant details of the whole show were two works by Melissa Wyman – called ‘Global Threadbare’, both of which were largely constructed using old fabrics and organic fibre – bright, easy works, until you notice the plaster casts of toes from left and right feet… strangely vulnerable details that, combined with the fact that most of the fabric comes from her old clothes makes these intensely personal works.”

For the whole review go to
S:\Newsletters\TLC Newsletters\2006\Jan42.doc

Threadbare

A photo of the show.

Threadbare is on now

The show “Threadbare” is on now at the Wellington Arts Centre
61 - 69 Abel Smith St
Until January 15th
10am to 5pm on weekdays
10am to 3pm on weekends
We will be taking it down at 2 on Sunday, Jan 15th
If you get a chance pop in for a look

As material becomes worn the threads un-weave themselves, become disentangled and go their separate ways. Threadbare is a show of work by 16 artists from New Zealand and abroad unravelling the stories that brought them to Wellington and rethreading them in an intersection of narratives. Art works will include collage, assemblage, textiles, photography, mixed media sculpture, plaster etc.

Global Threadbare right foot and left foot

Stairs and Ladders

List Makers

My co-conspirator Mica is working on a project collecting peoples’ lists... any lists, shopping lists, wish lists, to-do lists,
It’s interesting – have a look.

www.listmakers.blogspot.com

This project may lead to something bigger –
In the mean time

Mica says-

“I would love it if you could contribute.

Take a picture, scan and E-mail it to me...

E.mail to: list.makes@gmail.com “

a hole in my pocket

I was cleaning up my website and this image didn’t fit.
It’s my whole hole-y jacket.
My jacket wholly covered in holes.
Hmmm, that sounds a bit odd.
Is it possible to be covered in holes???

Body of Evidence

We had a staff and tutor show called Evidence last Thursday. I put my suitcase, ‘Hombody II’ in the show as evidence of my process. These images were of a performance piece that became part of my piece to make up the ‘Body of Evidence’.


‘Body of Evidence’ was a continuation of my rope investigations. I asked some people at the show if they would cut off a strip of material from my dress. I asked others if they had something I could braid into the rope that I was making out of the material from my dress and the hemp twine I used on my suitcase. As the rope got longer I added it to the trail of interactions (the rope) attached to the suitcase.

public private

One of our great inspirations this year has been going to the Wellington Gathering of the South project. http://www.southproject.org/
We listened to talks by artists from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and South America. On the second day we took part in a public intervention workshop by the pvi collective where we participated in their Panopticon project. The pvi collective is an Australian-based group of artists. http://www.pvicollective.com
This is an image of one of our interactions with a Wellington security camera. There are seven of us in both the above photo as well as the one below where we were wearing each other's clothes. (These photos were taken by the pvi collective)

Thank you for the photos pvi!!! Since we were sharing ourselves to the security camera, I decided I had to demonstrate an armbar. (I had let it go at this point). I hope my fellow artist friend here didn’t mind being at the receiving end of the armbar.

Global Threadbare

Taking art to the streets. Work doesn’t have to be legitimized as art by a gallery. I mentioned previously that I think an important role as an artist is to articulate alternative spaces. For me this means finding other ways to experience art and exercise art practices. “Global Threadbare” is a work in progress. Its part of an ongoing excavation of external expressions of self (such as clothes) to examine internal processes of relating to the outside world.

My friend and fellow artist Mica (see the link to her blog) are working together to explore social interactions through art. I brought “Global Threadbare” out with us on the town. Taking art work out of its normal context is quite a good way to see if and how it relates to its surroundings and to see how its surroundings relate to it. It got a few reactions – a few puzzled looks and a few smiles. I actually felt more like a pregnant woman with a belly that bumped into things-the way some people smiled at me. I will keep this blog posted of our endeavours.

places with personality

Site specific. I walk pass this wall on my lunch break. It has personality. There are a few places that I see on a regular basis that have a kind of character that I want to somehow enhance. This site-specific work is part of the rope investigations. The rope ladders leading to the round holes in this wall access the round spaces inviting exploration.

Identity and boundaries

The body is articulated as a provisional boundary through which identity flows, a heterogeneous site of play of differences, inhabited by the forces that make and unmake the self.

homebody 3

This originated from a doodle.

home in a can

What does an artist do?

Society needs artists to hold up mirrors for viewing our world and cultures from different perspectives. Because contemporary art opens up boundless possibilities for creative expression, one of the most important roles as an artist is to investigate, explore and articulate these alternative spaces.

articulate

these

alternative spaces alternative

the whole hole

If the idea of home is more congruent with a sense of belonging than a physical structure, can the action of creating a home be an interpretation of home in itself? If locations of home are changing, is identity also in constant flux while the body mediates its surroundings?

rope investigations

I create art in order to reconcile the sense of identity and belonging to my changing interpretations of home.

Question: What connects one location of home to another?
smells
thoughts
memories
images
objects
sentiments
people
love
laughter
anger
identity
language
me

I iz

rope
connections
varied
thin/fragile
thick/strong
knots

What are the connections between where you live and who you are?

music
art
and visual and spoken languages
reflections on society
these are the foundations for living

and the necessities that get rushed passed

This is a walk-able city. What I love about Wellington is that I can see the harbour from my house located on the side of a hill surrounded by trees. Between my house and the water there is a city with art and culture. I can walk home after a night out if I need to – the walk will take me through the gardens and up more than 120 steps. But I can walk – if I choose.

The scenery outside my art studio window is quite interesting. It was once a park home to some locals. This is one of its transitional states. The new park will probably be one that people feel safer walking through. Maybe there will be a fishpond. I wonder where the previous tenants have gone.

This is the second suitcase in the ‘Homebody’ series. Unlike the previous suitcase, this one was not a constructed from a previously existing suitcase. I constructed ‘Homebody II’ with wire, newspaper, plaster, volcanic rock for a gritty bony feel, then wrapped it with rope made of natural fibers. I’m planning to make seven suitcases about traveling ideas of home.

This is my suitcase art, ‘Homebody’, at the San Francisco airport. We flew from Wellington to California together. And yes, there were some strange looks.

Indian ink is amazing

I’ve been working on doing portraits with Indian ink and water colour. The first two are imaginary people, the 3rd was done looking at a picture in a magazine.

‘dislocation’

This is one of my paintings about home and travel. Most of my work at the moment explores notions of home.

I love loose emotive paintings. One of my favourite painters is Marlene Dumas. I find her work very enticing and eerie. Here’s an image of her work.

I’m a painter and a mixed media artist. I’m using this Blog to invite feedback and comments from anyone who comes across this. I am hoping that students will also have a look and feel free to post comments. This is also to inspire emerging artists to create their own Blogs and share ideas.

suitcase projects

'homebody'- This is my childhood suitcase deconstructed. I used clothes and yarn. Through the process of cutting sewing and wrapping I am creating a nest, a home which allows the changing atmosphere to flow through. I travelled from Wellington, New Zealand to California and back with my clothes inside this suitcase.