Featured Artist:
Melody Cleary

Cleary's works of art will be shown March 26 - May 21, 2008 at the Life's Crossing Gallery on the first floor of the Portland Donor Center.

Art patrons wishing to participate in the tour should RSVP to Sara Schirmer at 503-528-5671.

Melody Cleary
I was an incessant doodler as a child. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, the youngest of seven children, I was very spunky and tenacious but would never excel at physical activities due to an early onset of neuropathy. So, the visual arts held great appeal to me since grade school.

I watched my father who was very skilled at drawing and drew many designs for granite & marble memorials during his long engraving career in Portland. So, from watching him, I began to draw. My mother took note when I earned a blue ribbon in grade school for a pencil portrait of my teacher and a purple ribbon in my high school student art show. She enrolled me in art classes at a local art center when I was a teen and from then on, I was hooked.

In the 70s I studied drawing and oil painting with local professional artists at Art Center West in Tigard OR, now long gone. As a working adult, I moonlighted by taking classes at community college and local art schools in life drawing, palette knife oil painting, watercolor, acrylic and basic design. After early retirement in 2000, I devoted my time to continued media and color exploration with acrylics, watercolors and collage.

I convey, through my art, my emotional response to color and design in nature and our world... to celebrate it. I love traditional landscape and still life as well as abstract painting or collage and the process of allowing a work to just evolve not knowing where I'll end up. Some works on paper find new life and contribute a piece to an abstract collage. Many times, subjects or patterns that have movement inspire me, such as water and swimming fish. Whatever the subject, I strive for rich color. I also am inspired by the dramatic effect of sunlight and shadows as well as reflections. I like a painting to be an uplifting visual respite from our busy daily lives-- to quote Picasso: "Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." Indeed, it does.

Melody Cleary
7350 SW 130th Ave, Beaverton OR 97008
503-641-2481
melody@melodycleary.com
See more art at www.melodycleary.com