Melinda Morey
Kauai Artist
"In the past several years, my art making practice has merged visually with a life long relationship with the ocean. The ideas come from the time I spend at the beach, in the water and at its edge, surfing, swimming, and watching people play. I’m interested in our interaction with this vast body of water, and how this relationship manifests.
Currently there are two tangential bodies of work. One series captures guys on the edge of manhood. Here there is a lot of posturing that makes up for the insecurity of not yet knowing who they are. In this I see similarities between surf and hip-hop cultures, there is the public image, the attitude and identifying attire, but there is also the activity. The activity (surfing/dancing) is a proving ground for kids – mostly male – at the edge of adulthood. I see it as a rite of passage and relate to it, being both a surfer, and having come of age dancing in Los Angeles’ underground club scene in the early 1980s.
The other aspect of the work catches people unaware as they allow themselves to be absorbed, taken fully into the present, by the energy of the ocean. People immerse themselves in the experience of floating, playing at the water’s edge, or watching the ebb and flow of the tides.
I work from my own photographs, editing out all but the figure. What I aim for is a moment experienced by the body, as it is how we inhabit ourselves that interests me."
Melinda was raised on Kauai, then studied painting and illustration at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. She completed a bachelor's degree summa cum laude in Studio Art at the University of Arizona, and received a Master of Fine Arts degree summa cum laude from Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Melinda is a extraordinary draftswoman, painter, printmaker, video and installation artist. She has also worked as a commercial muralist and freelance scenic painter since 1987, with commissions reaching from Santiago, Chile to Tokyo, Japan. Her painting and installation work is influenced by the experience of working on a grand scale and by the performative aspect of her livelihood.
Morey is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Contemporary Museum, Hawaii; and the State Foundation for Culture and the Arts, Hawaii; as well as numerous private collections.
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