Catherine Mellinger

Catherine Mellinger

Location: Canada

My work blends paper with ink, pencil and watercolour to create images that verge on memories real or imagined; glimpses of something happening that is just out of reach and perhaps even understanding. My works focus on the creation of image-based narratives founded in fables that explore dreams, nightmares, memories of times passed and those yet to be experienced; remembering, searching, questioning, longing and losing. I attempt in all of my works to above all, create relationships; between images, between myself and the pieces as I’m creating, and the potential relationship that can occur between the viewer and the piece once it is on the wall.

I have been been putting glue to paper since I can remember. Having been born in the prairies of Saskatchewan to a Alsatian father, Acadian mother, and now living in Waterloo via Toronto, I am convinced that the puzzle that is my history was the founding of my fascination with bringing disparate images into one cohesive whole. I have studied and worked in the field of Fashion Marketing prior to moving my focus back into a fine arts discipline. Further studies have also brought me to be certified as a Creative Coach and Expressive Arts Therapist.


Portfolio:

Watching me Watching you

My work always begins as play. A play of figures, of images, of pieces from diverse sources that somehow seem like they were meant to be together. Using tighter collaged images that group in one area, the viewer is focussed into a story, a story that is made more interesting by the parts left out, which hover in the white space.

Recently this play has been directed to anatomical images, finding fascination in the stories our bodies hold.

The Sea and Me

"The Sea and Me" which looks at the emotional and physical dichotomy of being a mother. It is in these pieces that I am creating the space to play honestly with my experience. The pull of unbelievable love combined with emotional overload, and my life long struggle with chronic pain.