About Melanie West
Her Photography
Off and on for almost twenty years, Melanie was a professional photographer, first in Connecticut and then in California. Most of her professional work was architectural. Her work has appeared in several publications, including Architecture Magazine, Architectural Record, and Connecticut Magazine, and received a Merit Award from the American Institute of Architects in San Francisco.
Now, in Maine, Melanie has left the commercial end of photography, and has given her love of illustration and fine art photoillustration her full attention. Her works have been exhibited in California and Maine, and are included in private collections across the country.
Over the years, Melanie has explored various forms of photography, from handcoloring black and white photographs, to digitizing and manipulating her images on a computer. She has also been exploring the potential of what is often called "Polar-Art". Using an old Polaroid SX-70 camera and Time Zero film, Melanie "smooshes" the image while it's still curing. She also uses Polaroid transfer techniques, along with hand coloring. Melanie then manipulates the images even more in her computer. The resulting images often have a dreamy illustrative look.
Her Illustration
Melanie has been drawing most of her life. Recently she has been exploring pen and ink illustration, sometimes using her photographs as foundations for her drawings. Her "Mandala Series" is a study of the meditative qualities of Mandalas. It began with drawing simple mazes to distract her mind from chronic pain. The mazes began to take on Mandala characteristics, which led Melanie to research the use of Mandalas by Tibetan monks and Navajo medicine men. Her Mandalas are often strong graphic, black and white images, symbolic of components in nature.Melanie has also written several short chapter books for children, and has illustrated her stories. Most of this work is done with pen, ink and color pencil.