I like to make art because it is fun, exciting and nourishing for my soul. Imagination and thoughts are the underlying force behind my paintings. I use my art to motivate me in life and to evoke emotions. I reflect life around me through my art, tangible and intangible. I explore paths other artists have gone down, and then I veer off and find new territory. I often am able to unveil something completely new and never before seen. Art is my outlet for self-expression, it helps me identify my core or true self. I create art for the joy the process brings me, and the satisfaction it brings the viewer. I create with optimism because it gives me hope. Hope to succeed and to enrich other people’s lives. I believe that there is a fountain of ideas and creativity always waiting to be tapped into. It’s just a matter of knowing yourself in order to tune in to it all. I paint for my self-first, then when I’m full to the top I’m able to paint for others. I yearn for that play like feeling when I start a painting. I’m constantly trying to figure out what I need to do to make my best art, in doing that I’m able to share my art with a wider audience. I feel a part of this world when someone stops and ponders one of my paintings. I enjoy pushing my art to a new level, to take the information I’ve learned, process it, and pass it to the next generation of artisans and thinkers. These are all motivating reasons to why I’m an artist.
-Melvin McGee
Artistry is an honor held by the noble stewards of knowledge. It is the duty of the medium to harness the encompassing energies and transmute them into matter. This matter must contain information; evoke feelings or memories to the seer. Without proper care or realization of this grand responsibility, the message conveyed will fail and serve no purpose.
Throughout time I have seen the progression of my craft. Weak and pale my art was born, lacking, pure it continued with determination. Layers of patience and paints prospered ahead, to the next canvas, then to the next. Colors deepen and the form changes, I’m barely able to contain the forces, much less channel them into precision. With more persistence I continue to fine tune this dance. I humbly glance back at my past artifacts; nevertheless my gaze is steadfast, forward, and upward to bigger aspirations.
My intentions come from a place of calmness and gratitude. My main objective is to capture the feeling a child has when opening their first magnificent book, the eager delight of wonder that emerges. I imagine that I’m able to cast a net over this emotion, as though it is a delicate butterfly drifting in the breeze. I carefully handle it, study its colors, textures, anatomy, and learn of its marvelous ways. I make one last note as I set it free and watch its wings flap along the air currents. I take this accumulated knowledge bestowed down unto me and formulate its essence. I transcribe, transpose, and mead it into a formula, allowing the honey to act as a recipe for my painting spirit.
My goal is to ignite the creative spark that may lay dormant inside the inviting earth dweller. For I understand that all art holds its own harmonic code. It travels through space like a key, vibrating to its own resonance, hoping to find a matching lock. When finally found, I want my art to sprinkle like gentle rain on this buried seed, nourishing the desire for growth, life, and gratitude.