The McLean Textile Gallery is a 501(c)3
charitable organization and does not
take commission from the artists.

Melissa May is an artist whose work is inspired by music, poetry and the natural environment. Through abstraction the artist is able to focus on the pure pleasure of color, pattern, texture and the process of creating. She writes, “I look for connections between ideas and am interested in the human experience and spirituality."

 

Others have described Melissa’s work as, “organic, transformative, atavistic, manifesting female divinity, and evocative of the primal.” Her work has been widely exhibited over the past forty years across the United States and as far away as Australia. Melissa earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting in 1982 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art History, Museum Studies in 1995 from the Art Academy of Cincinnati. She also earned a Master of Arts in Anthropology from Eastern New Mexico University, graduating Summa Cum Laude in 2001. Melissa was a juried Tamarack artist in West Virginia and is currently a member of the Rehoboth Art League and the Ocean Waves Quilt Guild in Delaware. She is also a member of the national organization SAQA – Studio Art Quilts Association.

 

In this exhibit, Melissa May focuses on one of these recurring images – the form of the house. A house is a container for a family or an individual. It represents the idea of home. It holds our possessions and our loved ones. It can reflect our values, our taste, and our traditions. It can mean autonomy or confinement; isolation or togetherness; growth or loss; birth and death. "For me, and many during the coronavirus pandemic, our homes became so much more important and also changed in their function. These quilts express this moment in my own life’s journey and I hope will also resonate with the viewer in ways that are meaningful for them."

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