Kathleen Melian

My paintings explore figures within landscapes inspired by wild, neglected spaces both imagined or encountered growing up in the desert and camping in the mountains. I’m drawn to fringe communities living off-grid in remote environments who exist with a sense of freedom from conventional social normans and structures. Through painting , I reimagine these figures and place in a mythic, dreamlike way, blending memory, imagination, found images and my own photographic source material to create worlds that feel both familiar and otherworldly .