“Painting Completed my life.” Frida Kahlo

Melanie Therrien

 Biography

   Wickedillustrations@gmail.com

Melanie’s art studio is not far from where her grandparents worked, in the once bustling mills of Lewiston. She is the only painter in her family, but her family, just like Lewiston, is full of people whom possess ingenuity, creativity, and great work ethic. After working for 15 years, most evenings, in the service industry, and completing murals, illustrations and commission work most days, she opened Wicked Illustrations Studio and Gallery in 2007 along with co founding Captive Elements Art House. She began offering art classes and eventually added art parties and a retail section for art supplies. The Illustration work, mural work and commissions continued, and since moving her studio to Canal St. in 2015, she found a passion for civic engagement and Public Art. She worked with the Union of Maine Visual Artists from 2015 to 2019, helping to create an LA Chapter. Through the chapter and her own studio she worked with community members and the city for art events, walks and fundraisers and was honored to receive Uplift’s 40 Under 40 Creative Genius Award through the Androscoggin Chamber of Commerce in 2016. Her public art and installations she has been involved in can be seen on and around iconic and important places in her home town such as the Tree streets, Simmone’s Hot Dogs, The Public Theatre, Adams Ave, Centreville Garage, and Rusty Bus. The art includes creative crosswalks, murals, painted fire hydrants and a series of selfie wings called #wickedwingslewiston. 

Public art  is accesible to everyone, brings communities together, tells a story, helps beautify cities, and creates a sense of place. 

Melanie's work focuses on the mystery, beauty and power of nature. Primarily a painter she works interchangably with  watercolor, oil, acrylics, open acrylics and fiber arts.  Her work is meant to be what it is for her to create it, the pause, the deep breath, the calm.  

2020 - Continuing Female Painters Series-

Artist Statement

I have always enjoyed the therapeutic process of creation and wanted to share the healing energy of art with others. After all that is thrown at us through the news, social media, and advertising, I wanted my art to be the pause, the deep breath, and the calm. But during COVID, when many of us were forced into a debilitating pause, art was once again my savior. What began as a few pieces honoring female painters, prior to 2020, turned into a continuing series of nearly a dozen works. They gave me the courage to finish my own self-portrait entitled, “See No Evil.” I have always been fascinated with the language of flowers and they have been dominate in my work. Following this theme, blooms became an integral part of this series and each piece includes the artist surrounded by flowers plucked directly from their own work. My self-portrait “See No Evil” is comprised of flowers that represent my family and friends. They cover my eyes and shield me from the horrors of the world. In the unprecedented year of 2020, the mass shooting of 23, and all the major moments in our lives, it is our friends and family who are most important, and who despite everything close by or far away, in person or online, are our shield, our pause, our deep breath and our calm.