Melissa Speaks Out

Melissa has decided to share her feelings of childhood trauma and how the atonement has been applied in her life through this series of paintings and poem that she wrote.

The pain I feel is with inside
It pulls me and slows me down to shame again
Oh how I wish to purge this out
And rid myself of this trap

I can’t believe he still calls me to Come Unto Him
I have such a heavy burden and struggle that I hold and carry deep within
Does he know and understand that he’s the only one
That extends his hands with love and care

Can I trust? Do I trust his love?
That he will catch me once again

Oh how I have tried and tried to offer a broken heart
To a man who caught me with his hands of care
I feel his hands and his heart can I trust that the healing will start
I give my will with my heart to my Father I shall not depart

I lay at His feet my fears, defeats and doubts
And trust to take his hand to the promised land

Oh what joy there is to have in a Brother that will lend his hand
Whom divinely sent to do His Father’s will
To succor the heart of men To Follow Him

Where pain and struggle had once resigned
Is now flushed and washed aside
With the love and peace that is offered only by He

He the Father, He the Son, He the Holy Ghost whom guide my life once again

With this I devote to return to my Father’s presence again
To open my heart and trust again
To serve and love as He has done for me
To pass this on to all that need
By stretching out with our reach and share the love the Lord has to preach

Atonement and Devotion
by Melissa Lloyd

Melissa, more than words.

Melissa Lloyd uses more than just words to communicate. Like many artists Melissa communicates through her artwork. One thing I love about Melissa is her passion for art and her ease at portraying her thoughts to others through art.

Melissa's love for art started at a young age. She loved finger painting in the first grade. Art classes always came easy for her. She always understood her art teachers and hated other subjects like Math and English.

Melissa loves painting and sculpting. She looks for the medium that speaks best for the subject she is ready to portray. She says sometimes it's easier to paint and other time to sculpt. Melissa started sculpting with wire in 2006. She started by using old wire coat hangers. Her first two were a foot and a human skeleton. What drew her to wire sculpting was re-using, being resourceful, making, creating and reproducing. She enjoys working and thinking at the same time.

She enjoys sculpting trees because they have a lot of personal relevance. The grounding of life, root system growth, strong, a support to others, and enrichment to life. As far as plans for the future she hopes to go far with wire and make it more than a hobby. She stated, "painting is a therapeutic journey for myself. It brings me comfort and helps resolve things. I hope to one day share that with people." Melissa is also drawn to industrial design. She'd like to bridge the gap between art and functionality. When asked what she would like to say to her fans she said, "I have fans?" and then went on to say, "follow your creative ideas and see where they take you. It's not as highly recognized as the academic world but it has a lot of personal development qualities."

watercolor for grandma

This painting was my first finished watercolor and at times I never thought it would end. I started a few others before this but I guess my attention span wasn't long enough to finish just one at a time.

When I began the wash on this I was in Flagstaff, Arizona at my friend Cinda's house. Her mom and aunt and been my genius teachers prior to this painting and the skills they taught me have stuck with me painting after painting. I started this wash like any other wash, lots of water, a little paint. I started out with good intentions and then got frustrated and threw it on the floor, in my mind I was done with this. Cinda walked over, picked it up and told me it was fine I just needed a break. So I took one and several long ones after that. I finished the face while in Flagstaff.

I moved back to Utah a month or two later and began working on it some more. At some point in the beginning I talked to my grandma on the phone and I told her I was painting her a picture (at the time I hated it and figured she had to love anything I did, afterall she was my grandma). In Utah I completed the hair which is when I started really liking it, but it was too late to keep it I had already promised it to my grandma. A few months after that I moved to Idaho where I had nothing but time and I completed it.

When I was back in Utah again a few months later I gave it to my parents and they took it to my grandma who was residing in Wyoming with them. My mom told me that my grandma was planning on getting a frame for it at Walmart but when she saw it she said it was the most beautiful painting she had ever seen. She took it to a frame shop and got non-reflective museum glass and a fancy frame.

My grandma hung it in the cabin where she was living. When she moved she took it with her to St. George Ut, Quartsite Az and Omaha NE. When she was about 89 she gave the painting back to me. She wanted to make sure I ended up with it. I thought she must have gotten sick of it because I didn't think she was near death and I was right. I went to her 90th birthday party and she was doing just fine. Later that year she died and the people she was living with wouldn't let the family in to get her things. Maybe she knew how things would end up and maybe she didn't but I'm glad I ended up with it.

This painting has traveled many places and I hope it travels many more with me and maybe even future generations. Thank you grandma for inspiring it.

Rothko

Mark Rothko was among the generation of American artists who completely transformed the essence and design of abstract painting. He was passionate about the viewer's experience. He said, "No possible set of notes can explain our paintings, their explanation must come out of a consummated experience between picture and onlooker. The appreciation of art is a true marriage of minds. And in art as in marriage, lack of consummation is grounds for annulment." His paintings have simple names so that nothing will stand between the painting and the viewer. Some examples are, "No. 13 (White,Red on Yellow)" or "No. 6 (Yellow, White, Blue over Yellow on Gray)".

I haven't figured out exactly what it is that draws me into a Rothko painting but I am drawn in. At first glance these may look like simple paintings but even after spending hours observing them their full potential can still be overlooked.

A few months ago we were in Washington, D.C. and had the opportunity to partake of the Rothko experience again at the National Gallery of Art. If you find yourself with that same opportunity don't just breeze by, take it in.

Chalk. In the beginning...

One year for Christmas my parents gave us chalk. Yep chalk and a chalk holder, they even threw in some colored chalk. Now I don't remember any of us having chalkboards and it wasn't sidewalk chalk so I thought to myself, "what am I going to do with this" and then I headed off to my room. While everyone else was taking their Christmas day nap I got to work.

This was a big turning point. It took me from doodling to murals. First I tested a small area with the white chalk to make sure it would come off the wall and to ensure that my father wouldn't kill me. When it did I started by drawing a character I had sketched before. I liked it and I kept going until all of my walls were covered with chalk drawings. It had been a few hours and my mom came in to check on me. I showed her what I'd done she liked it and got my dad to come and look. His first comment as predicted was, "Does it come off ?" When I showed him and he was satisfied with the results it was a green light in my head and I spent the rest of the day turning everything from white to color.

By the end of the day my room was a masterpiece and again my dad asked "Does it come off ?" Unfortunately a few years later, when I was long gone, my parents tried to wash it off the walls because they were moving but it didn't come off. They had to paint over it. Who knew? Can a young budding artist really be blamed for such a crime? If anything it could have upped the resale value of their home.