Artist Statement
From the lens of a gardener and an artist, my work investigates the dynamics of landscape and space, where order and chaos intersect in our ever-evolving environment. The mixed-media languages of drawing, painting and printmaking speak visually about these environments where built structures merge with curved, organic geographies. Traces of humanity intersect with nature throughout. The interactions map the relationship between order and chaos in the complex adaptive system of the world in which we live.
Having moved a lot as a child, I see constructed shelters as temporary. Instead, the spaces around us, the places where nature is a part, draw me in. Through layered abstractions and patterns, gestural conversations of color, light, and form explore materiality and the ecology of metamorphosis around us. My work celebrates the human and nature relationship, deconstructing the duality of chaos and order to demonstrate the multiple ways that they coexist.
My abstracted contemporary landscapes expand on the vibrant interactions of color and pattern of the postmodern Pattern and Decoration Movement. Additionally, the philosophical concepts of difference and repetition (Deleuze, 1968), as repeated colors and shapes dance with one another forming varied outcomes, reflect nature’s ongoing, ever-adapting resilience. Serendipitously, the layering of translucent hues and pattern also creates the ephemeral effects of light and space. Nature provides me with an uplifting, colorful, and textured sanctuary.
Biography
Samantha Melvin is a Texas-based artist, art educator and advocate, who moved internationally as a child. Her research-based artistic practice includes drawing, painting, and printmaking through which she investigates order and chaos in the spaces we inhabit. Her work focuses on the interaction between humans and nature. She exhibits her work regularly in Texas in group and juried shows. Her work has been included in invitational group exhibitions in California, Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas, juried shows in New York, Virginia and online. Her work has also been published. Samantha sees her practice as an art educator as a virtuous cycle for informing her work as an artist, while also driving excellence in the classroom, for which she was recognized nationally. She has a Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She also has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan, and a Master of Arts in Art Education from the University of Florida. She was a freelance consultant in art education after leaving the art classroom. Samantha is currently a community press member and instructor at Flatbed Press, Center for Contemporary Print in Austin. She is a master gardener, loves to fly fish, and speaks fluent French and Spanish.
C.V.
Education
M.F.A. in Painting, Savannah College of Art and Design, May 2023 Master of Arts in Art Education, University of Florida, May 2015 Bachelor of Arts, French, University of Michigan, May 1988
Awards
Transient Phenomena, 2023, Materials: HARD & Soft 2024, Denton, TX Best in Category (Paper). Glorious Abundance of Evening, 2023, in Project: Happiness, Downtowner Gallery, Round Rock, 3rd Place The Complex Nature of Things, 2022, in Small Works, Georgetown, TX, 3rd Place I Can Breathe Now, 2019, in Conduit, Frisco, TX Honorable Mention, Best in Show She Pulls It Together, 2019, in Nosotros, Georgetown TX 3rd Place in 2D Abstract Finding My Way, 2019, in Far Country, Taylor, TX 2nd Place in 2D Taking Flight, 2018, in Transportation, Taylor, TX 2nd Place in 2D
Solo Exhibitions
The Spaces In-Between, SCAD M.F.A. in Painting, Thesis Exhibition, Cloud Tree Gallery, Austin TX, May 4-7th, 2023
Publications
Thought Art Magazine, Issue 04, 2021, four pieces published in bi-annual art magazine
Invitational Exhibitions
BirdSong 2023: Eve’s Picnic, McCrory-Timmerman Galleries, Taylor, TX Recalling La Romita, Flatbed Gallery, Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Austin, June-August Members’ Show, Flatbed Gallery, Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Austin, April-June Rendez-vous with Wax, Ross Gallery, ARTS, Fayetteville, TX, March/April Her Story/Their Story, She/They Gallery, Santa Ana CA, January (2023) Birdsong 2022: The Anthropocene, Taylor, TX Hot Wax, Cold Wax Invitational , Avery Gallery, Kerrville, TX (2016) The Buzz Stops Here Invitational, Austin Texas Wax, Austin, TX (2015) Mistakes, Special Interest Group Invitational, Murfreesboro, TN Project Loop 3.0 Exhibition, Preacher Gallery, Austin, TX Art Educator as Artist Invitational, Hammond Arts Center, Hammond, LA (2012)
Selected Juried Group Exhibits
2024 Women in Art 2024, Hive Gallery, Bee Caves Art Foundation, February 3rd - March 22nd Materials: HARD & Soft 2024, Denton, TX, February 2nd - May 4th Postcards from Utopia, Pop-Up, January 13th, Sarasota, FL.
2023 NAEA 2023 Members’ Exhibition, Virtual Gallery until May 4th, 2024 Red Dot, Women and Their Work, Austin TX Project: Happiness, Downtowner Gallery, Round Rock, TX 93rd Annual Juried Artists Exhibition, San Antonio Art League & Museum
2022 Small Works, Georgetown Art Center, Georgetown, TX 2021 Verdant, Envision Arts & UNT CoLab Gallery, Denton TX Open Studios Exhibit, SCAD, online exhibit 2019 Halcyon, Continental Lofts Art Gallery, Dallas, Texas Conduit, Frisco Art Gallery, Frisco, Texas, NAEA Member Showcase, NAEA Gallery, Alexandria, VA Patterns of Influence, The Painting Center, New York City, NY Taylor Art Guild at the Annex, Round Rock, TX Taylor Art Guild Group Exhibition, Texas State University, Round Rock, TX #WOMAN, Circle Gallery, online exhibit, Maryland Federation of Art Nosotros, Georgetown Art Center, Georgetown, TX Far Country, 120Art Gallery, Taylor, TX 2018 NAEA Member Showcase, Virtual Gallery Small Works, Georgetown Art Center, Georgetown, TX
Related Experience
Judge, Scholastic Art, 2024 Judge, Art Hop 2023, Georgetown Art Center, Georgetown, TX Instructor, Flatbed Press, Center for Contemporary Print, Austin ~~Celebrating Monotypes (September) ~~Introduction to Monotypes (January) Guest Artist, Fresh from the Studio, Women and Their Work, April 27th, Austin, TX Artists’ Talk, Hear Their Story, She/They Gallery, Santa Ana, CA, via Zoom, January 2023 Trustee, National Art Education Foundation, (two terms) 2017-April 2023 Intern, Women and Their Work, Austin, TX March-May 2022 Intern, Flatbed Press, Center for Contemporary Print, Austin TX January-March National Art Consultant, Davis Publications, in-person/online workshops, 2016-2022 Independent Freelance Consultant in Art Education, hands-on workshops Elementary Art Educator, R.J. Richey Elementary, Burnet CISD, Burnet TX, 2008-2015 Elementary Art Educator, Hunters Creek Elementary, Spring Branch ISD, Houston TX, 2003-2007
Selected Publications
Author, “What If,” chapter in STEAM Education: An Interdisciplinary Look at Art in the Curriculum, Hunter-Doniger and N. Walkup, Ed., ~~expected March 2024, NAEA/Routledge Publishers.
Selected Awards and Grants
Texas Art Educator of the Year, 2019, Texas Art Education Association National Elementary Art Educator of the Year, 2012, National Art Education Association Outstanding Elementary Art Educator of the Year, 2009, TAEA Nickelodeon Big Green Help Grant PBS Teachers Innovation Award Robert Rauschenberg and the Lab School of Washington: Power of Art Award BCISD Elementary Educator of the Year, 2009 SBISD Elementary Educator of the Year, 2007
Languages: French, Spanish
With gratitude to Shana Berenzweig for the amazing photos from my exhibition in May, 2023. http://www.shanaberenzweig.com and @shanaberenzweig on IG.