My paintings examine feelings of vulnerability, connection, isolation, fear, and survival imagined through invented landscapes. This body of work strives to address how we, and our environment, are being impacted by climate change. I create paintings, drawings, and cyanotypes that position animals and humans in the landscape and strive to capture a melancholic and anxious mood through rhythm, repetition, color and atmosphere. I rely on my imagination and my emotional response to the world around me to inform the narratives in my work.

This current group of work has been developed by referencing photographs I have taken of herds of sheep, my family in the landscape, and of birds migrating. I reinterpret these images through collage, drawing, and painting on paper and canvas to create a fabricated space and narrative. I am interested in juxtaposing both herd and flock animals with the arctic landscape as a metaphor for both safety and apathy. I want the viewer to question where this landscape is and what is happening and I hope the paintings reveal a truth through fiction.

Artist Bio

Melissa Dold was born in Redwood City, CA and she currently lives and works in Seattle, WA. She teaches Visual Art at Seattle Preparatory School on Capital Hill. She is married to the artist, Kyle Cook, and they are raising two daughters. Melissa received a BFA in Painting from the University of Washington, and an MFA in Painting from Boston University.