Melissa Newman is an educator and artist originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee. She holds an MA and MFA in Painting from the University of Iowa (2003, 2004) and a BFA from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Her work has been exhibited in various venues across the country and in 2006 she completed a residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. She has taught Foundations and Painting classes at Middle Tennessee State University since 2008. Her work consists mainly of abstract paintings and mixed media collage though she has a secret love of still-life. She lives in Nashville with her husband, daughter, and two dogs in a house full of clutter and dog hair. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

Naturally, the way I see and experience the world affects the images I create. At the same time, making images affects the way I see the world. Sometimes the translation comes from looking something dead in the eye; other times, it is an attempt to grab onto something that flew by in your periphery. That translation is separate from the experience of seeing an object or image, no matter how far removed from the source. The instant the paint touches surface, the game has changed.

Recently, my work has taken on a more personal subject matter as I try to process the roles I hold as teacher, an artist, and a mother that continue to overlap more and more. While the various media may differ in their final appearance, my process is one of combining my varied sources through a distillation that results in a cohesive image. There is only a small place that an image can exist as recognizable and ambiguous, sweet and tough, partial and whole, still and vibrating, seductive and dismissive. In order to find this place, I continually try to investigate the slight tweaks and changes that can push a painting to one side or the other.