Melissa McDonough
Edwardsville, IL
Dimensional painting: wire lines curving, translucent layer, light projection, iridescence, floating shadow.
Message
Melissa McDonough creates sculptural drawings and wall installations that investigate the elusive interplay of light and dimensionality via line and color. Utilizing wire, layering fabric, and paper, her work is a physical drawing in space. Projecting colors and shadows, light is an active medium. The varying dimensional shifts from painted or drawn to physical constructions playfully engages the viewers’ visual comprehension.
McDonough’s interest in large-scale painting started at a young age painting on her bedroom wall; eventually her passions lead to jobs painting murals and backdrops in Chicago and Arizona. She studied painting and drawing with BFA from University of Illinois and an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Building a resume that diversified her experiences in the art world, McDonough’s vocational experiences include museums, art galleries, as well as teaching for various colleges. Culminating her administrative experiences, McDonough served as the Executive Director of the Edwardsville Arts Center and was a founder of the Edwardsville Art Fair. As an Ambassador for the international platform, Women Artists Connect, she participates by sharing writings and resources. McDonough’s work is influenced by artists like Judy Pfaff and Richard Tuttle, focusing on in-situ installations and dimensional paintings. Bringing a strong background in arts administration and curatorial practice to her own work, she has revitalized her studio focus, which is currently supported by a grant from the Illinois Art Council for an exhibition at the Schmidt Art Center.
Statement
The work is site-specific installation of wire, fabric, vellum, and paper with light projecting onto it. Gestural, physical, and drawn lines swirl, curve, and loop. Fabric, paper, or projected light are shapes of color. Translucent veils, hide and reveal layers. Light reflects and casts shadows on or through the surfaces illuminating or projecting, creating new shapes and lines. The result is a composition of layered elements hiding and revealing a variety of materiality, an orchestration of light, colored shapes, and dimensional lines in a space that is both illusory and tangible.
Actively comparing and re-evaluating the iterations, an interplay of light on layered materials creates new images obscuring what is tangible. Being present with the work, looking slowly, and examining the variations sharpens awareness to the subtleties of the visual experience. Playfully, the visual comprehension is challenged with ambiguity and phenomenon.
Inspiration comes from the immersive physicality of Judy Pfaff’s work as dimensional paintings. The surprising use of light and shadow in Robert Irwin’s disk paintings and Richard Tuttle’s exploration of spatial relationships with simple materials appeal to my sensibilities.