Melissa Yates
Responding to the values of beauty, goodness and truth present in Nature through the medium of drawing
works
Pencil on Panel
(8 x 10 inches)
Dissolution
Is it Safe?
An Invitation
Where Wisdom Resides
Time Will Tell
The Message
Pencil on 360gsm paper
(12 x 16.5 inches)
The Missing Ones
Memory of the Future
Patterns in the Ivy
Between Worlds
I'll Meet You at the Foot of the Tree
about
My work is asking: what can our sensory experience of the living world tell us about the nature of Nature?I am interested in what society considers 'valuable' and how our current culture is distorting our innate ability to discern meaningful value, leaving many feeling lost and damaging our living world. A school without walls, Nature provides embodied intrinsic value; a grounding force that can help orient us through difficult times, teach us directly about ourselves & reality and connect us to what is truly meaningful.I turn to Nature as my guide through the transformative process that is living a life; the beauty of vulnerability, cycles of loss and renewal and embracing the mystery unknown are themes which I engage with through the use of symbol and metaphor.Simple materials plus sustained attention is a poetic way to cut through the noise of daily life and connect to its 'essence'. Pencil on paper or wooden panel allows the foundational elements of light, shadow and form to be emphasised. The resulting monochrome reveals the less obvious details, textures and spatial relationships that might otherwise go unseen.At its root, my practice is driven by the belief is that Nature is a dynamic, evolving, interconnected system, infused with intrinsic value, intelligence and purpose. The ongoing enquiry underlying my work is a contemplation of how our human experience and awareness changes when we shift our perception of Nature from a 'mechanistic' worldview to a 'participatory' one.
‘Of what use are poems, or any other works of art unless to enable human lives to be lived with insight of a deeper kind, with more sensitive feelings, more intense sense of the beautiful, with deeper understanding’ - Kathleen Raine