Melissa Willett

Artist Statement

All around me, I see the world blossoming. Flowers are blooming, fruit is ripening, children are growing, and colors are exploding. In my art, I love to explore the lusciousness of the natural world. Through painting the moving and growing world, it can be captured and exaggerated to show the pleasure of viewing our stunning surroundings. Life and growth are contrasted with skulls and withering flowers; there is no life without death and no pleasure without pain. My pieces are beautiful and colorful, but also moody and a reminder of life’s fleeting nature.

Biography

Melissa Willett is a San Francisco based artist who works in painting and printmaking. Her Bachelors degree in studio art with a concentration in education followed by her Masters in art education at Boston University encouraged Willett to focus on both her own work and growing creative culture. Impressionist masters have a heavy influence on the movement and flow in her work. Explored in her paintings are the joy and brightness of life with bold colors, organic compositions, and lively nature. In contrast, her art also involves deep shadows, wilting plants, and skulls. The duality of life and death, joy and pain work harmoniously throughout her paintings. Celestial beauty and gnarled tree roots both have their place in Willett’s body of work.