Bio

Born in 1996 and raised in the D.C. metro area, Melissa Halbrook has always been interested in art. As early as two years old, Melissa showed a strong interest in drawing and painting. Although she never entered a formal degree program for art until recently, she has always taken classes and found ways to expand her skill set. Previously, she earned a B.A. in Anthropology from George Mason University, which highly informed her philosophy on art and the world in general. She is currently studying at Studio Incamminati, School for Contemporary Realist Art in Philadelphia, PA. She is primarily an oil painter, but also has a fondness for pastels, graphite, colored pencil, and just about any medium she can get her hands on. Art has been mostly a private affair for Melissa, who has only recently begun to show her work at local Philadelphia venues such as the Union League, Icebox Project Space, and Crown of Creation.

Artist Statement

As an artist living in a modern world where almost anything can be considered art, I feel a distinct need to preserve older techniques that I believe form the foundation of visual storytelling. “Freedom within limitations” is a motto that I live by, because it eases unsolvable existential grievances about how one should make art, what it should look like, and so forth. I consider myself a bit of an anthropologist of method - learning everything I can about traditional materials and application. However, I am not a connoisseur of art history, and find myself more interested in living artists, as well as the conceptual narratives in contemporary art. In this sense, I hope to bridge dying techniques with modern attitudes, to make art that is descriptive of our world today with a timeless sensibility. Street artist Ron English and comic artist David Mack were strong influences on me, even though stylistically it does not appear that way. Right now, I am producing mainly studies rather than art - but slowly developing a more personalized aesthetic. Stay tuned!