Melissa Zink

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hand-finished cast urethan resin 12/20 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Melissa Zink Born 1932 Kansas City, Missouri Died 2009 (aged 76–77) Taos, New Mexico Nationality American Occupation(s) Artist, Sculptor Melissa Zink (1932-2009) was an American artist. An active member of the Taos, New Mexico art scene, she blended storytelling with sculpture, and described the enchantment of books and the imaginary worlds they evoked as the focus of her work.[1] Critics lauded her as a "late bloomer" because she only began to exhibit and sell her multi-media works of ceramics, cast bronze, and collage, when she was in her forties.[2] She became known for her "three-dimensional stories" and "dream-like dioramas" in clay, interior scenes that blend whimsy with surrealism.[2][1] Later she cast large bronze statues of human figures embossed with texts drawn from dictionaries and illuminated manuscripts.[2] In 2001 she won a Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts from the state of New Mexico.[3] In 2021, one of her works featured in a special exhibit at the New Mexico Museum of Art entitled, "Southwest Rising: Contemporary Art and the Legacy of Elaine Horwich," which featured a group of artists in the 1970s and 1980s who together launched a movement described as "new Western art" or "Southwest pop".[4] Education and career Melissa Zink was born in Kansas City, Missouri. She attended the Emma Willard School, Swarthmore College, the University of Chicago, and the Kansas City Art Institute.[5] She later admitted that her professors' efforts to push her and her peers towards abstract expressionism during the 1950s deterred her from pursuing a career in art.[2] Instead she worked for many years by designing picture frames and operating an embroidery and craft shop while continuing to paint and experiment with various media in her free time.[6] In her forties, she married Nelson Zink, who encouraged her to pursue her artistic ambitions. The owner of the Parks Gallery in Taos, which represented her for many years, described her works as aiming to replicate through multi-media art the "book experience, that altered state of consciousness we enter when engrossed in a book."[7] Though known primarily for her clay dioramas and bronze figural sculptures, in later years she also created multi-media, collage wall hangings that incorporated fabrics and painted elements.[1] In 2000 Zink represented New Mexico at an exhibit of women artists called "From the States" held at Washington, D.C.'s National Museum of Women in the Arts.[1] In 2006 the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos staged an exhibition on her work.[8] In 2009, following her death, the Taos Art Museum and Fechin House staged a memorial exhibition entitled, "Melissa Zink: Her Singular World."[9] She featured among leading women artists in the book Exposures: Women & Their Art by Betty Ann...

Fused Glass created in a kiln. method Relatively simple materials. Beginning with float (recycled window) or plate glass, pieces are cut and arranged with hand-cut glass shapes, ...

Materials : Multimedia Date : 2016 Dimensions : 6″ x 2″ x 8″ Anna Minnick's work explores the struggles of identity and mental illness. She hopes her work forms a dialog about these...

Untitled Mixed media with collage elements on paper, c. 1990's Signed by the artist in pencil lower right (see photo) Condition: Excellent Image size: 7 1/16 x 6 inches Support sheet size: 10 9/16 x 8 3/8 inches Provenance: Estate of the artist Dehn Heirs Virginia Dehn From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Virginia Dehn Virginia Dehn in her studio in Santa Fe Virginia Dehn (née Engleman) (October 26, 1922 – July 28, 2005) was an American painter and printmaker. Her work was known for its interpretation of natural themes in almost abstract forms. She exhibited in shows and galleries throughout the U.S. Her paintings are included in many public collections. Life Dehn was born in Nevada, Missouri on October 26, 1922.] Raised in Hamden, Connecticut, she studied at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri before moving to New York City. She met the artist Adolf Dehn while working at the Art Students League. They married in November 1947. The two artists worked side by side for many years, part of a group of artists who influenced the history of 20th century American art. Their Chelsea brownstone was a place where artists, writers, and intellectuals often gathered. Early career Virginia Dehn studied art at Stephens College in Missouri before continuing her art education at the Traphagen School of Design, and, later, the Art Students League, both located in New York City. In the mid-1940s while working at the Associated American Artists gallery, she met lithographer and watercolorist Adolf Dehn. Adolf was older than Virginia, and he already enjoyed a successful career as an artist. The two were married in 1947 in a private ceremony at Virginia's parents house in Wallingford, Connecticut. Virginia and Adolf Dehn The Dehns lived in a Chelsea brownstone on West 21st Street where they worked side by side. They often hosted gatherings of other influential artists and intellectuals of the 20th century. Among their closest friends were sculptor Federico Castellón and his wife Hilda; writer Sidney Alexander and his wife Frances; artists Sally and Milton Avery; Ferol and Bill Smith, also an artist; and Lily and Georges Schreiber, an artist and writer. Bob Steed and his wife Gittel, an anthropologist, were also good friends of the Dehns. According to friend Gretchen Marple Pracht, "Virginia was a glamorous and sophisticated hostess who welcomed visitors to their home and always invited a diverse crowd of guests..." Despite their active social life, the two were disciplined artists, working at their easels nearly daily and taking Saturdays to visit galleries and view new work. The Dehns made annual trips to France to work on lithographs at the Atelier Desjobert in Paris. Virginia used a bamboo pen to draw directly on the stone for her lithographs, which often depicted trees or still lifes. The Dehns' other travels included visits to Key West, Colorado, Mexico, and countries such as Greece, Haiti, Afghanistan, and India. Dehn's style of art differend greatly from that of her husband, though the two sometimes exhibited together. A friend of the couple remarked, "Adolf paints landscapes; Virginia paints inscapes." Virginia Dehn generally painted an interior vision based on her feelings for a subject, rather than a literal rendition of it.] Many of her paintings consist of several layers, with earlier layers showing through. She found inspiration in the Abstract Expressionism movement that dominated the New York and Paris art scenes in the 1950s. Some of her favorite artists included Adolf Gottileb, Rothko, William Baziotes, Pomodoro, and Antonio Tapies. Dehn most often worked with bold, vibrant colors in large formats. Her subjects were not literal, but intuitive. She learned new techniques of lithography from her husband Adolf, and did her own prints. Texture was very important to her in her work. Her art was influenced by a variety of sources. In the late 1960s she came across a book that included photographs of organic patterns of life as revealed under a microscope. These images inspired her to change the direction of some of her paintings. Other influences on Dehn's art came from ancient and traditional arts of various cultures throughout the world, including Persian miniatures, illuminated manuscripts, Dutch still life painting, Asian art, ancient Egyptian artifacts...