MELISSA URBONAS

CONTEMPORARY ABSTRACT ART

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work is a series of explorations into the way that I interpret the landscape around me. Growing up surrounded by the open farming fields of the Midwest, the dominating presence of the horizon line has influenced my perception and understanding of the word landscape. This has instilled in me an inherent approach of mentally breaking down and dissecting my surroundings into a few basic elements: line, space, and color. Visual form is the vehicle by which these concepts are then further explored, and I utilize a variety of materials and methods of execution in this investigative process. Each piece is an open-ended journey, undertaken with a blend of spontaneity and careful analysis.

There is an interplay in my work between an appreciation of the natural world and a desire to organize and manipulate the environment. At times, there appears to be recognizable images in my paintings, but these images lack definite boundaries and vacillate between possibilities. I am interested in this ambiguity that arises when perception is not absolutely clear. Rather than recreating a landscape on canvas, I aim to express its essence. I associate this with a desire to use imagery that is dualistic in its ability to provide a common expressive ground for both the outer perceptual world and the inner personal world. I am enthralled by the range of complex individual responses that we all as humans have towards our various environmental stimuli. Personal impressions, emotions, and memories that I have connected to the landscape facilitate an ongoing need for me to derive and articulate meaning from the surrounding world to achieve a higher level of awareness and self-identification.

Ultimately, elements of abstraction in my work mingle with representative motifs to culminate in a view that is simultaneously personal and universal. My hope is to make art that corresponds, both individually and communally, to the way we all regard the world around us.