Melissa Moloney, a native of the Northern Florida panhandle, took her first art class as a fun elective during her senior year in high school. That class was the catalyst of a life-long path of creativity. She studied Art and Art History at the local community college. In 1993, before graduating, she moved to Oregon trading in her paintbrushes for a suitcase choosing mother nature as school master.
Fast forwarding to 1999 when she moved to Albuquerque, NM and was fortunate to find the perfect artist occupation which was designing and curating events for Framing Concepts Gallery.
In 2010, the desire to earn her degree was rekindled and in 2012 she graduated UNM with a Bachelor’s of Studio Art alongside Manga cum laude, 4.0 and the Dean’s list while raising her two young children. Her goal is to live life simply and to always seek out the beauty in everything.
Artist Statement
Painting has always been a way for me to relate to my surroundings, to make myself feel at home by exploring the beauty around me. I grew up in the soggy southland where color is not as intense, striking or as saturated. When moving to New Mexico the landscape offered itself as a carnival for my senses.
Capturing the light is everything! As a plein air painter, it is always the light that I am fascinated by and how it interacts with the southwest landscape. Exploring the relations between vast space, color and light is my inspiration. It is the tension within those forces that continues to compel me to pick up the paint brush.
