Artist: Melanie Nuccio
Exhibition: Threshold
Media: Oil on canvas
Gallery: LBSU School of Art, Dutzi Gallery
Melanie Nuccio is working towards her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in the School of Art’s Drawing and Painting program. Eventually she hopes to obtain her MFA degree as well. She has just taken a course on color theory and explains that her work in the group show “Near Far” reflects that experience in its multitude of bright colors.
Nuccio’s Threshold is a wonderfully colorful piece. Washes of blue, purple, and even pink adorn the upper right hand corner of the piece flowing into shades of green on the lower right hand corner. In the lower left hand corner shades of yellow and beige ground the viewer and shine a spotlight on a feminine figure dressed in teal. The colors of Threshold draw the viewer in and work cohesively, taking us on a journey through the each section of the piece.
Through her piece Threshold Nuccio explores the boundaries of exterior and interior spaces both physically and psychologically. She explains that the plant life represents the chaos of interior spaces permeating our orderly spaces. Nuccio accomplishes a juxtaposition of control and lack of control using plant life. In this piece she also explores the idea of home and what home means to different individuals. What kind of space is home and how does it look?
For me, Threshold is a fantastic depiction of the natural chaos of life infiltrating the neat and uniform places we attempt to make our homes and minds. The freely flowing form of the plant life overcomes the harsh lines of the man made windows and walls in the painting achieving this blending of concepts. As a perfectionist this idea really resonates with me. I attempt to make my life and my mind fit neatly into a box however it never seems to work. Life is beautiful but it is messy and Threshold wonderfully illustrates this concept.
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