Artist StatEment
With dirt under my nails, my heart jumps as my hand brushes against a worm in the soil. I am reminded of the world that thrives underground, unsettled by the mystery that is at my fingertips. Analogous to scenes from a natural history museum, flora and fauna take center stage to illustrate that we are always tied to migration, evolution, and metamorphosis. The surface is not a border, but an entrance to homes, nurseries, highways, and graveyards.
My photographic approach aims to create curious representations of ecosystems while referring to place and memory. In addition to a camera, I use a flatbed scanner to capture a level of detail that the camera cannot compete with, playful perspective, and an odd sense of light. I am attracted to making work that takes time and find the layering of processes necessary in my artistic discovery. I approach a chosen space like an amateur biologist; observing, sketching, noting, photographing specimens and scanning the scene with a scanner. Once I have ‘collected’ the scene, I begin the process of visually telling the story of what I saw, and who (or what) may live among us, through compositing the elements together into a visual narrative.
My photographic approach aims to create curious representations of ecosystems while referring to place and memory. In addition to a camera, I use a flatbed scanner to capture a level of detail that the camera cannot compete with, playful perspective, and an odd sense of light. I am attracted to making work that takes time and find the layering of processes necessary in my artistic discovery. I approach a chosen space like an amateur biologist; observing, sketching, noting, photographing specimens and scanning the scene with a scanner. Once I have ‘collected’ the scene, I begin the process of visually telling the story of what I saw, and who (or what) may live among us, through compositing the elements together into a visual narrative.
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Bio
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Melinda Hurst Frye is a Seattle-based artist and educator. By way of observation, experimentation, and slow investigation, her practice centers themes of ecology and place in photographs of the Pacific Northwest landscape. She holds an MFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design and a BFA from Pacific Northwest College of Art. Hurst Frye’s work has been featured on Humble Arts Foundation, Lenscratch, and WIRED Photo and exhibited widely throughout the United States. She is represented by J. Rinehart Gallery.
Subscribe HERE for updates on projects, exhibitions and a preview of upcoming, new work. Work featured by Charley Locke on Wired Photo, Mother FStop, Blend Images, RealClearLife, Lenscratch and Lensculture Interview on process and concept by Jon Feinstein for Humble Arts Foundation |
Photograph by Gordon Hempton, Hoh Rainforest, WA, 2019
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Happenings: shows, talks, and Press
