WomenArts Banner
Donate WomenArts Blog WomenArts Facebook Page
Search Artists | Create New Profile | My Account | Help  
 

Melia Dawn Newman
Be Mused Art
Email Send an email to this Artist >>
Website http://mandalameditations.com >> This web site features photos of the artist's work.

Personal Statement: I am never really sure what I will draw when I pick up a pencil, but often it is a reflection of what I am feeling at the time, or an idea expressed by a friend or family member that I spoke to recently. I work through ideas and contemplate what is going on around me through my artwork.

I am never exactly sure what makes me choose certain sketches over others to paint. Maybe it is because there is something in them that I need to think about or understand. I also rarely plan the colors I will use at the time. I choose my colors intuitively at the moment of painting. Sometimes, I even change colors in mid-stroke.
Current Work
I started doing cubist paintings about a year and a half ago. I had been doing similar drawings for some time and one day while going through my sketches, I realized that they captured my emotions and those that I observed in people around me better than any journal entry ever could.

I still do several sketches a week, but only a very few are used for paintings. I just do not have enough time in the day to paint everything that I put into my sketchbooks.

I have taken the same intuitive approach to my mandalas that I have been drawing for a few years now. I decide on a size, and the number of segments before beginning, but after that, it takes on a life of it’s own.

If my drawings and paintings were not so strongly related to my personal experiences at the time, it would feel like I was channeling the art instead of actually creating it myself. But that is an idea many other artists have expressed before me. I keep remembering an NPR interview where a songwriter said that they didn’t really write the songs, so much as heard it first.
Short Bio
I studied art at the University of Texas and received my BFA in 1998. My art education began at my grandmother's house when I was kid. She was always involved in some creative activity from oil painting to doll making, and she got me involved to keep me out of trouble.

In the last 5 years I explored textile art before recently returning to drawing and painting again. I have been selling my crazy patch pouches, as well as my drawings and paintings, on ebay. Currently I am selling my recent Mandala and cubist works, and I periodically offer some of my earlier works.

Exhibitions
  • 2003 October-Novemeber Richardson Civic Art Cociety Membership Exhibition. Richardson, TX
  • 2003 Ocotber Paint it Forward an A4A Group Exhibition. Bardonia, NY
  • 1998 Senior Exhibition at the Center for Research in Contemporary Art. Arlington, TX
  • 1997 Valkyries Perspective, Solo Exhibition at Univeristy of Texas. Arlington, Texas
    • Honors
    Juried Member of EBSQ Plus

    Union Affiliations/Professional Organizations
    Richardson Civic Art Association, Texas Visual Art Associtiona, EBSQ
    Artist Location
    Garland, TX

    Type of artist
    Painter/Sculptor
    General Themes
    Feminism/Gender Issues, Mass Media/Pop Culture, Body Image/Body Size, Environment
    Last updated on March 24th, 2004

    WomenArts • 3739 Balboa Street #181, San Francisco, CA 94121 •  Contact Us>>

    © WomenArts 2011 unless noted otherwise. All rights reserved.
    Please be sure to credit WomenArts if you publish information from our website.
    WomenArts is the new name of The Fund for Women Artists,
    a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.