Spotlight Artist

Mel Prest

Pacific Coast
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Featured in New American Paintings

Artist Statement

I'm mesmerized by color. Line comes from reducing marks to a simple form. A straight line can signify everything or nothing in the world. Either way, it's a way to begin. I'm absorbed in the mark- and aside from pencil dots (to mark the field) lines are the only mark I'm making.

These works are based on the songs from the first five Led Zeppelin albums; each piece is a unique song spelled letter by letter in gouache, ink, pencil and watercolor. I use a grid of dots as a system to chart and construct with colored lines. 25 dots correspond to the first 25 letters of the alphabet. I begin connecting the points as I spell and map relationships of words. When mistakes are made, that word is spelled by a single, discordant color.

Turning words into a series of lines produces a knot or web of architectural space that visually embodies the connection between these lyrics. The work is a way of concretizing abstract, fleeting, and transitory experiences.

Artist's Additional works

Works shared by the artist outside of their featured New American Paintings selections

Featured artwork
Featured artwork

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