Melanie Bethke is an abstract oil painter. She received her BFA from the University of Minnesota in 1998. Her early works explored the links between music, expressive line, rhythmic pattern, and color. The premise was to capture the spirit of a piece of music in visual abstract forms to convey the energy and movement of music. Her disparate musical sources in this effort include Miles Davis, Philip Glass, traditional Indian music, Steve Reich, Radiohead, DJ Spooky and Gustav Mahler.

Her artwork gives visual expression to a felt experience. Through her decades of painting she has developed a process that induces a free-flowing dialogue between her, the subject and the painting. Her practice relies on creating specific rituals for each work, which offer pathways to access the undercurrents of the mind. This allows her to paint from a place of pure feeling and intuition.

Bethke’s work has been accepted into juried shows at such as: the Hudson Hospital Healing Arts Program, Phipps Center for the Arts, Bloomington Art Center, Creation by Sound: Art Inspired by Music, Vine Arts Center and Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition. In addition, her work has been shown in various group and solo exhibitions throughout Minnesota.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

I fell in love with oil painting the first time I picked up a brush. The first mark on the canvas starts a conversation. A painting evolves through a visual dialogue that transpires between the artist and the marks on the canvas. It is a continuous dance of brush strokes and colors. Sometimes a splash of color sparks life onto the canvas, while the next mark extinguishes the life it once held. The beauty of art is that it nudges you up against life itself. Each painting begins with a blank canvas and as a painter, I have the opportunity to bring life into it. This is why I have dedicated my life to it: to be able to witness the remarkable transformation of art.