Kathleen Melian

Kathleen Melian is a Los Angeles based painter who was raised in Cave Creek, Arizona. Her painted images are often landscape and figuration dissolving into abstracted, imagined compositions. Inspiration for Melian's work comes from many sources including her frequent drives and road trips to document forgotten and abandoned places beyond the outskirts of cities. The places often become a venue for art, music, retreats, revelry and a way to escape traditional societal expectations. These "happenings" seem to tap into ancient rituals and ideas of utopia, morphing them into the contemporary. Melian is interested in the "counter-cultural tourist" excursions as well as fringe societies she encounters, especially from a feminine point of view. Women in some of these locations seem to possess a resilience, wild independence and strength required for such an existence. Similarly, the modern day productions designed for city dwellers harken back to ancient stories of gods and goddesses, power, beauty and conquest.