Melissa Loop
Exploring authenticity and imagination: Artist Melissa Loop’s journey through Maya mysteries
Your paintings are inspired by your visits to ancient Maya sites. How do you capture the feeling of these places while acknowledging your role as a tourist?
I think the old colonialist way of coming into a place and trying to become “native” like Paul Gauguin or to “discover” something like Indiana Jones is a trope that is deeply problematic and never really existed as we think of it. However, in our search for an authentic experience or untouched beauty we are playing out some of that pretend narrative because it has this nostalgia of adventure. I see photos and read stories about far off places, and I want to go there to fulfil the desire that was evoked with that photograph. However, I know it is impossible in reality because things never really exist as we think of them, and part of their desirability is enhanced by their unattainable distance. I think the fact that I am a tourist in someone else’s space is always there because I can only see the world through the lens of my own experience, so I cannot tell the story of that place as well as someone from there. I can only tell the story of myself, the person who saw a picture, or read an article that made me want to go to a place to learn more about it and capture how that experience feels.
Your paintings have a unique texture because of the materials you use. How does this texture help tell the story of the places you’ve visited?
I do a lot of softening of the painted image through the use of water, sanding, metallics, and spray paint. Sometimes I use only one of these tools and sometimes I use all of them in one painting. When trying to evoke a feeling of a place, I think of how it smells, tastes, the sounds, the temperature, light, etc. Many of the places I visit are quite humid so the drippy wet paint really helps with that feeling of a warm, humid, misty environment.
Read the rest of the conversation and grab your copy of the Art Seen, Issue 12 published in May 2024.
Check out www.melissaloop.com to learn more about the artist.