Melanie J Thompson

Artist Biography

Artist Melanie J. Thompson has been a lifelong student of the arts. Her interest was born from an environment rich with creativity. Starting at home, her parents were strongly interested in building their art collection, exposing Melanie to a huge span of imagery. One of her favorites was their cherished Dali lithograph, which was from a rarely seen series based on Alice in Wonderland. It featured a silhouette of a girl swinging from a weeping willow amidst butterflies. Little did anyone know that a couple decades later the fascination with trees and winged creatures would spawn a career.

The first time Melanie remembers the desire to pursue an art career was on a day her mother was coming into her class to feature an artist as a volunteer picture lady. She as six years old sitting in the back seat of the family car and announced out of the blue that she was going to be an artist when she grew up.

Little did she know, she already was.

The years that followed were filled with wonderment. Trips to the Chicago Art Institute with both family and school, then eventually on her own, were a regular part of life. Hours were spent wandering through the rooms and corridors. Countless adventures to the local art supply stores were a field trip in and of themselves. Dozens upon dozens of sketchbooks and journals were filled one after the other as fast as the seasons could change. School art classes didn’t fulfill the urge for more learning, so the Park District’s summer programs became as anticipated as a surfer’s trip to Fiji. When she reached the age of ten, the summer programs were no longer a challenge. With a bit of research and word of mouth, her mother found a local artist who taught students classes out of her basement. This proved to be a wonderful turning point, as the door to the world of oil painting had been unlocked. No matter how many variations of mediums, styles, techniques, subject matters or trends she was exposed to, oil painting was still her specific passion that kept rising to the surface.

After high school, she spent three semesters at Western Illinois University. Not feeling fulfilled as an artist, Melanie went on a scouting trip to Savannah, Georgia to check out the Savannah College of Art and Design where one of her friends attended as a photography student. Realizing the school was not rounded enough to suit her needs, after five months she decided to head back to Chicago.

Then came the bold move to Hawaii.

In the summer of 1993, Melanie went on a family trip to Maui. It wasn’t her first trip there, but it was the first one as a young adult. Just one walk down Front Street in Lahaina was all it took for her to be determined to make it her home. One gallery after another was filled with beautiful images of tropical forests, waterfalls, beaches, whales and other marine life, and exotic hula dancers. She learned that Lahaina was officially crowned “The Art Capitol of the Pacific.” Five short months later, that life changing one-way ticket was purchased. Her two suitcases were packed, the art supplies were shipped, the guitar found its snug little home in the luggage compartment, and she wasn’t having it any other way. Her fifteen years that were spent on that beautiful little rock in the middle of the pacific are absolutely the most prominent influence in every piece she creates. That Dali print from her childhood urged her to be around the very aspects of nature which helped shape her into the artist that she is to this very day.

Melanie’s body of work is flowing with images of dancers, butterflies and moths, mesmerizing trees, and exotic feathers dancing across the canvas one after another. Her dreamy landscapes may have been inspired by her surroundings, but they only actually exist in her mind and on her canvases. There are trees that actually started from photos taken near her many different homes, and trees that only landed on her canvases through the use of a brush. Many of the paintings that include flower blossoms were inspired by gardens and hikes through tropical forests, while others came from bouquets given to her by her loving husband for Mother’s Days, birthdays, or sometimes just because. There are subjects that are based on people she loves, and there are subjects that exist simply just because.

Aside from clearly establishing her own unique style, Melanie takes pride in her method of titling each of her paintings. With years of journaling and creative writing classes, she began desiring titles with deeper meanings. She not only wanted the images to be thought provoking, but the titles as well. Some came months after a piece was completed, some were inspired by the classical music she’s played most of her life. Others came from natural disasters happing around her while she worked in front of her easel. Sometimes a great title will even come to mind first, inspiring the birth of a new idea.

In the up and coming years Melanie has slated travels with her young family to visit friends and extended family back in Maui. She also hopes to embark on new adventures to Mexico, and eventually come full circle back to Chicago to share her roots with her children and husband. She has also explored lots of research and grant opportunities to help further her artistic endeavors in order to spread her creativity as far into the universe as possible. Approval is pending but the possibilities are endless, much as the pursuit of artistic perfection.