Melissa Bland

Wider Waltham Artist
I work in two disciplines: painting and ceramics. Both are essential to my practice and directly affect each other. Repetitive mark making is a core concern. I utilize gouache and dark stoneware respectively. The massing and/or layering of individual marks is central to my current paintings––a series of small, circular works focused on contraction and expanse. While in my ceramics, mark making has greater physical dimension, resulting in a tactile surface. Here, I seek to create abstract patterns that subvert expectation, reflecting life’s unpredictability and instability.