I like to watch things grow. They grow and bloom, and fade, and die and change into something else, Ah Life! — Harold and Maude
Melinda Santora is a Pacific Northwest artist specializing in mixed–media works that combine vivid colors and organic textures with the sometimes deliberate, but often unexpected, pairing between found flora and familiar archetypes. Her paintings explore issues of identity and place, metaphor and mythology, both whimsical and emotional experience, and the rough, unfinished, and often imperfect beauty.
Melinda has studied both Contemporary and Classic Art at Southern Oregon University, and is an alumni of The Studio Arts Centers International (SACI) in Florence, Italy. She attended The Evergreen State College, earning a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts. While at Evergreen, she encountered the paintings of Pierre Bonnard and the les Fauves, becoming deeply inspired by their striking use of color and figurative subjects. She refined her own conceptual vocabulary from her studies of photography, mythology, cultural and art history.
Her art has been featured in both solo and group exhibitions, charity auctions, arts and craft fairs, in print publications, such as Portland’s Willamette Week, and continues to gain recognition.