Melissa Milton creates one-of-a-kind mixed media sculptures and paints with alcohol inks and acrylic paint on canvas.
Melissa begins each art piece by asking a question. Such as “How would robots interact with animals if all the humans were gone?”, “How can a Lizard on a wall be a metaphor for a person meeting a challenge?”, or “What if we could escape our everyday problems by just grabbing the string of a balloon and letting it float us away?” She then sketches a visual representation of that question, later creating it as a sculpture or painting. Melissa feels that as long as there are interesting questions to ask, there will be interesting artwork to make.
Melissa began creating art in earnest in 2017, after the first year of becoming homebound with an inherited disease. She began with hand drawn digital art on a tablet, but after a few years began using “wet paint” instead when some medical improvements occurred with oxygen therapy. The digital layering techniques she originally used have translated themselves into wet paint glaze layering techniques. Alcohol inks and acrylic glazes made from scratch have become her main paint media of preference in creating these layers.
Prior to beginning a new piece, she still uses her tablet for hand sketch her paintings and sculptures digitally. She sometimes does this mid way during a piece as well, importing a photo of the work in progress into her tablet. She’ll then try out new colors or shapes on it digitally. It’s a fun way to experiment with ideas without altering the piece in real life. She’s found this “experimentation without consequences” encourages bolder ideas on her part.
