Melissa Mazza

Life itself has always been one of the biggest inspirations for my artwork. Growing up on Long Island, I’ve always had a passion for art. I learned at a young age, art surrounds us and is everywhere in life. Through the exploration of various mediums, my goal has always been for the viewer to become mindful and present when observing my work. Drawing is my true passion and is how I fell in love with printmaking. I strive to represent different aspects we see internally in life such as emotions, feelings, sentiments, experience, and externally such as human anatomy, and nature. Creating art is expressive freedom. To me it is the act of letting go and gifting a piece of the soul to the world. My imagery involves the intertwining of human limbs, most often hands and feet with nature such as roots, bark and other botanical features. This allows me to provide my viewers with a visual of personal growth. Representations of hands allow me to express their importance in which they endure hours of exercise in creating my work. Feet allow me to represent strength and the foundational presence within physical and mental growth. Embedding botanical aspects into these limbs allows me to represent the connection of the human and the earth.