Melissa Rubin in conversation with Amy Beecher

Artist Talk featuring Melissa Rubin and Amy Beecher in conversation on March 15th 2025. This event coincides with the solo exhibition Field Notes: Recent Work by Melissa Rubin, currently on view at the gallery through May 25th, 2025. During the talk, Beecher and Rubin explore the themes, visual elements, and psychological layers of this compelling exhibition, delving into the process, imagery and inspiration behind the works on display.

FIELD NOTES

Recent Work by Melissa Rubin

Field Notes consists of visual notations referencing the understory, the world below the canopy of the trees which is teeming with life, decay, the delicate balance in play and the fragility of the natural environment. It is a meditative, emotional and pictorial study, alluding to the entangled, interconnected webs of trees, branches, flowing springs, the infinite night sky, and the wildlife that calls it home. The raw materials I encounter become deep inspiration for my imagery and approach to my art. The many layers of papers, paints, various organic materials, such as wax, marble dust, carbon, silver leaf and clay, are evocative of forest underlayers and the interconnectedness of the wild environs.

The understory, in a literary sense, is the architecture that undergirds, gives meaning to, and supports a story. In this regard,my work reflects the expansive, psychological experience of the narrative the natural world reveals. Exploring the terrain and its impact on my relationship to the environment, I create visual references to textures, branches, decay, and growth, all woven together to form a depiction of my outer and inner landscape. The media I use functions as my personal vocabulary of expression, as proxy to emotional states of mind. I consciously work with materials that help to facilitate a sense of light, darkness, mystery, and fragility.  - Melissa Rubin