Melissa is an artist based in Ireland. Her work is held in both private and public collections.

Creating artwork is intrinsic to my beliefs and hopes for a more positive world. I’m primarily a painter, and the act of making an image and a physical object with permanence like a painting, from seemingly nothing more than canvas, pools of paint and imagination still feels surprising to me just like a magic trick and it is this unexpectedness that motivates me to make artworks.
My work is influenced by my research into the past works of Surrealism and how they exploited the redundant and dusty nature of old bourgeois paintings and re-invented them. Themes include adopting the mysterious and uncanny, alternative views of nature where hybridity thrives.
Artworks are also triggered by my own personal life experiences and what it is to be a female artist in the 21c. There’s also a critical commentary that reflects the effects on the human psyche of today’s hyper-modern world with the seemingly overwhelming endless plentitude of consumerism and the technocratic element of today’s society.
My aim is to give notice and meaning through the unexpectedness of imagery to the viewer and in some way a reflection and pause for thought on our own values and how we exist today.