Melissa Setterington
Fine Art Web Site
Welcome to my Web Site!
For a Nicaraguan, living in the United Kingdom for the last twenty-five years has sometimes been difficult. Those of us who live away from our homeland have the challenge of absorbing the new culture whilst adjusting our values and being true to ourselves. The differences in cultures have produced a strong feeling of suspension and a sense of wonder of where it is that I truly belong. I feel that there are huge polarities between cultures and émigrés have to deal, at one point or another with these differences. All the problems arising from the “conundrum of cultures” are what the world is struggling to adjust to today.
The tension produced by this is what I explore through my work; how to represent it visually, succinctly and aesthetically. I work with polarities: the dynamics of shapes and forms expressed in a controlled/expressive, cold/hot, hard-edged/blurred-edged way. Representing them within a strong but simple composition; shapes that fight against each other in a space.
I have developed a methodology which includes the development of a series of drawings followed by further studies through Collage, Paintings and/or Relief work. I have been inspired by Ellesworth Kelly’s simplicity, Mark Rothko’s subtlety and Sandra Blow’s dynamic expression.
I hope you enjoy your visit to my website and that you will be able to read and see what I am trying to express. Thank you very much for browsing through my Gallery and please feel free to send me your comments.
