Refugees Walking

Melanie Nussbaum was born in Portugal and raised in Switzerland. Her family moved to Utah in 2015, when Melanie was in high school. They first moved to Cottonwood Heights, and the next year, 2016, to a little green pioneer home in Hoytsville. Nussbaum began "Refugees Walking" as a project for her art class her junior year of High School. "At the time, many refugees were coming into Europe," She said, "and because my family lives in Europe I was very aware of what was happening and the problems they were facing. There were many different opinions on what should or should not be done, and I just wanted to show the refugees. I wanted to show how much they had gone through and their humanity." The painting was the first she created using a palette knife, and was only her second ever oil painting. In college Melanie studied graphic design. When she's not painting, she loves being outside camping and hiking, or inside, cooking and reading.