Self Portrait
Cum her boi, Acrylic on maylar,
36″ x 48″
Hangman, Acrylic on mylar,
18″ x 24″
Get Off My Horse, Acrylic on mylar,
18″ x 24″
MELANIE LUNA | INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Q. How did your passion for art begin taking shape for you—at home, school, a mentor, and other artists who inspired you or a personal experience that started the fermenting process?
A. Moving to the epicenter of the world that is New York at the age of 12, I started to realize that I had an itch for the new. I didn’t begin painting until senior year of high school at the age of 17 and when I did, I felt I got possessed by some being with an unlimited amount of endurance and inspiration. It was the culture shock of the big city that started this fermentation process. Leaving my language in half and entering a new one I find myself in two tongues called Spanglish. I understand that this muted state of mind led to me finding stability in the visual and so painting and drawing acted as my gate of reason.
Q. How would you describe your artwork, in terms of materials or mediums? Has it changed or evolved since formal training and what are your goals for it?
A. Fun and games at first, my work has shifted incredibly fast since my very first painting of a pineapple. I have come to terms with my inability to understand object permanence and welcome my awkward stages as learning curbs. I went from working vertically to working flat on the floor, paintbrush to ketchup bottles, finger paintings to airbrush, and finally the biggest jump in my opinion is working with reflective materials that distracts and pushes back the viewer. Pictures do not do my work justice, one must see it in person to see what I see. I welcome you all to this distorted world that lives under the visible world and potentially a missing spectrum. My goal is to find this missing spectrum and hopefully take my work into hidden heights.
Q. How important is a personal style to you as an artist or does your work reflect larger social and cultural issues?
A. I see our world in this information age as overly saturated and fracture with gaps of dishonesty. In pictures it all seems great, a small painting can act as big, angels play a huge role with the quality, there’s editing in almost every picture, we are a dissatisfied bunch that needs just a tiny bit of retouching. I have seen works in pictures that I feel strongly for, but when seeing it in person it falls flat. It’s almost like seeing the wedding dress before really does curses the engagement. My work is trying to say this, but truly I live under this medium of dishonesty. A major conflict of interest, I am working to take my work to this hidden step I’m searching for, BUT for now I am looking for a personal style. I want to paint for me and only me, then I’ll paint for a white wall.
Q. Has being a woman affected your work and others’ perception of it? How do you feel about being a part of a woman’s art organization?
A. This is the very first time I get asked this question. I have never really thought about being a woman in the arts. It’s something that I chose to ignore due to my belief that I’m just simply a being. I’m in a rogue state of mind and thoughts of self, distract me. However, I would never choose to be anything else, I love being a woman. Outside of studio I am simply just a young woman with simple needs, low maintenance and a solo adventurer. Being a woman has not affected my work in any way, but it has played a role with other’s perception of me. I get looked at differently, there’s a hidden transaction when interacting with males in the art world. In other words, my full capabilities are not taken in fully because of my gender. I’m not just an artist, but to them I’m a women artist that by default has a feminine style. But what if I told you, that I choose to ignore this stigma and I dive head first to create a style that holds no gender, the kind of image that one can finally separate the artist from the art.
