LXS Melissa Melero-Moose
Translating Paiute
mixed media on canvas MELISSA MELERO-MOOSE, Happy Valley
April 8 – April 26, 2019
Translating Paiute consist of contemporary mixed media paintings of images inspired by the landscape and culture of the Numu (Northern Paiute) of the Great Basin area. Happy Valley artist Melissa Melero-Moose layers organic objects, sand, an acrylic washes to create a pictorial view of the Great Basin told through a textural surface. She explains; “Willows, tules, cattails, and pine nuts are all very important staples to the Paiute people, being sources of food, shelter, and implements made with artistic intention. I consider these works to be a perspective of my tribe and culture through the eyes of a Native woman, mother, and artist.”
The process of Melero-Moose’s works evolves from painting abstract figures and landscapes to the experimental combining of mediums and objects to create her current mixed media work. Her ideas of applying willow and other objects to the canvas came from her family coming together to make each part of her son’s cradleboard. She describes this process; “From the willow alignment to the beadwork for his cradleboard hood, I saw each part separately before it was assembled and wanted to document that series of creation.”
In her current work, she began the process of painting green by creating her own acrylic washes to conserve paint and she leaves nothing to be washed down the drain. She combines many layers of the washes and mediums to create her landscapes and Great Basin inspired images. “These protruding images and highly textured surfaces transform from two-dimensional canvas to three-dimensional objects when I attach the willow, pine nuts, or found objects to the surface. I view these works as a personal collaboration of my culture, individual development, and curious expression of the world around me. My intention is to share with others the beauty of the Great Basin area, people, and culture.” Melero-Moose clarifies.
Melero-Moose’s was born in San Francisco, CA in 1974 and spent most of her childhood living near Reno, Nevada. She is a mixed media visual artist, mother, and a Northern Paiute enrolled with the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe. Melero-Moose holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM and a Bachelor of Science from Portland State University in Oregon. She exhibits her art regionally and nationally and has won numerous awards and acknowledgment for her work from the Nevada Arts Council, SWAIA Indian Market, and Native artist fellowships from the Nevada Museum of Art, School for Advanced Research, the Southwest Association of Indian Arts and the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe, NM. She is currently a Peter S. Poole Research Fellow at the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV.
To learn more about Melissa Melero-Moose or to purchase her work, go to https://www.melissamelero.com