“I am painting the raw side of life, simplifying the human form as symbols of pure emotion. I paint the figure interested by the human condition. A person’s spirit inspires me more; thus the usage of bright colors which define life. Man’s endurance and efforts to achieve higher and more meaningful goals are what I strive to depict in the moment of consciousness that he shows through choice or error. For me, truth is beauty. A painting must have both to communicate with strength and power, to evoke emotion in the viewer, to inspire growth and change and acceptance of similar truths.”
Melanie Ann Alvarez was born in Brownsville, Texas of Mexican and American heritage. Her formal art schooling began in Mexico at the prestigious Bellas Artes and at the Instituto de Allende. Later, she attended the Glassell Museum School and the University of St. Thomas in Texas. In 1988, Alvarez received a Bachelor in Fine Arts degree in painting from the Parsons School of Design in New York City.
Since 1988 Alvarez has had numerous exhibitions and has been collected nationally and internationally. Her artwork has been published, televised, filmed, and awarded. Alvarez enjoyd working in many different mediums. Her body of work includes paintings in acrylic, oil, watercolor, gouache, tempera, pastel, and drawings in pencil. Alvarez sculpts with clay for bronze and carve with marble, stone, and wood. She also make prints using lithography and zinc plate etchings.
The Mexican muralists, Diego Rivera and Siqueros have influenced my work as have Orozco, Frieda Kahlo, and Tamayo. Additionally, I have found inspiration in Francisco Corzos, Rudolfo Nieto, and Julio Galan, Italian Francesco Clemente, and RC Gorman’s interpretation of the American Southwest.
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