Dreamscapes

To create art is to share a piece of oneself. When Melissa Kraft paints, dyes, and glues, she is sharing, and she is making an offering. She is inviting us to go on a journey to see a world that seems to be just slightly more magical than what is outside of the frame. Through cities and fields, homes and lands, she presents a cast of characters who seem pure, purely happy and childlike, yet not naïve. Melissa depicts what might otherwise be perceived as mundane, but with the essential realization that every moment can be one of connection.

Melissa's colors and brushstrokes promote a sense of calmness and gratitude by tapping into something ancient and timeless. It feels joyous because it is genuine. There is no deliberate agenda to Melissa's work, only what pours out of her, tempered by her spirit. She paints what cannot be explained in words. Basic human experiences, feelings of belonging, memories real and imagined, collective and personal, appear with a sense of ease. There is something both uncanny and comfortably familiar about them.

Each piece presented here could be the beginning of a fairy tale, the start of a great adventure. They are exciting because they allow us to get creative, to get lost in our imagination. Together, they create a reverie, a place to escape and dream, dreamscapes.

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Text written for Melissa Kraft's solo exhibition Dreamscapes at Centerpoint Gallery, New York, April 28-May 29, 2023