The Art of Emotion
All artwork featured is courtesy of Melanie Biehle
Interview by Jennifer Cooper
“My paintings are emotions on canvas.”
The great dancer and choreographer, Twyla Tharp once said, “Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.” And considering 2020 is the year we’re all supposed to be staying home in order to save, well pretty much everyone on the planet’s lives, I figured I’d call on my friend, artist Melanie Biehle for a little art talk. Because I don’t know if you’re like me, but I’m really really wishing I could go places again.
Instead, I’m settling in for some more months getting cozy at home and hoping you’ll join me. You know, but from your own home. That’s why for the next several weeks, I’m dedicating jennifer magazine to meditations, insights, and the shifting nature of home—what we grew up thinking home meant, what we think it is now, and how we find it in ourselves.
Melanie recently teamed up with design experts Coco Kelley who have created a pop-up shop that will breath new life into your home. For it, Melanie created nine original artworks inspired by landscapes that evoke an emotional connection to our world both inside and outside our homes.
We chat about the emotion in art, where she calls home, her ties to the Deep South and the transient nature of living in Los Angeles.
How would you describe your work?
My paintings are emotions on canvas. They are abstract explorations of the inner workings of the mind, the mysteries of the universe, and the often opposing energy of the city and the sea.
I know that feelings and emotions play a huge role in your work. I always think of feelings and emotions as a sort of place, like a state of their own. But you also have work that feels very evocative of physical places too. Tell me about that aspect.
Travel is a deep well of inspiration for my creative work. I'm a nonrepresentational painter and my art is a blend of my feelings about a place and the experiences I've had there mixed with some of the physical attributes of it, like color palettes, light, and terrain. Imaginary aerial or birds-eye topographical views show up consistently in my paintings. Sometimes I even blend a straight-on cityscape view with what it might look like if you were staring down from a skyscraper or the window seat of an airplane.
What’s the most important thing you put into your work?
My intuition. I find that the best thing I can do while I’m painting is to stay out of my own way. If I get too caught up in thinking or trying to force something to work on the canvas, it never flows. For me, trusting my intuition leads to stronger work.
What do you hope people get out of your work?
I want them to feel connected to the work. Ultimately, my abstract paintings are emotion. Each one is uniquely created to bring a particular type of energy to the spaces they occupy. Seaside color palettes can relax and calm; bold and bright abstract cityscapes can enliven and energize. Everyone can have their own unique experience with the paintings.
The number of collectors snapping up your work has been steadily increasing. I know you just sent pieces off to homes in California and Europe. What did it take to grow the way you have?
I'm so excited to be sharing my work all over the world!
It's weird because it wasn't that long ago that I was trying to figure out how to get my art in front of a larger group of people. I remember reading a lot of things like "just focus on the work" and "keep showing up" which, coming from a professional marketing background, was hard to swallow. I mean, if that would have been my recommendation to marketing execs at Warner Bros. I would have been fired on the spot!
But it turns out, with painting, it's true.
Letting go of the outcome has been a huge help for me. Continuously painting and evolving my work has been key. Meeting new collectors by sharing my work on Instagram and with online galleries like Singulart and Saatchi has been crucial to growth.
90s-era Biehle’s blowing bubbles in Monroe, Louisiana courtesy of the artist’s instagram account.
You grew up in the Deep South but spent most of your years on the West Coast in Los Angeles and Seattle. Those seem to be very different places with very different souls or energies. What influences did you keep from each of those places?
Now I want to go back through all of my paintings and see if I can find connections to the South! That’s where I first met real working artists. When I was 19 years old I started hanging out with artists, writers, musicians, and designers. At the time I wasn’t producing any work of my own, or even really conscious that I’d surrounded myself with creative types. I spent a lot of time hanging out in my friend’s studio watching him paint, flipping through magazines that I’d never heard of before like I.D. and The Face, and observing what it was like to be a working artist, even though I didn’t realize I was paying attention.
I was fascinated by the California coast way before I ever visited or lived there. When I was a teenager I often thought that I'd move there one day, even though I'd never been – the same thing with Seattle when I was in my early 20s! I guess I just intuitively knew that I should be there. When I paint abstract seascapes or imaginary aerial views I'm often mentally back on the warm sand at Point Dume in Malibu. It's one of my favorite places – and I'm glad that I got to share it with you!
While I moved away from Seattle proper in 2019, I've spent most of my time in the Pacific Northwest living and working in the city. I draw on this energy for my abstract cityscapes (along with New York, which is a big influence on my perception of “city”). Seattle is great because you can literally be in the woods or on the coast within minutes of being downtown! This blend of city, sea, and forest is a tonic for me.
I crave culture but require quiet and space. The sea gives me the space I need to experience the city. The opposing yet co-existing environments allow me to fully experience the energy of the city, then retreat into a protective marine layer to create.
One of the things I think about with you is how home plays such a huge role in your life. Specifically, that you aren’t tied to a physical location. Being someone who is somewhat nomadic, what does the word home mean to you?
We moved a lot when I was a kid, but only within a 20-mile radius. And honestly, the place where I was born never really felt like "home" to me – at least not when I became a teenager. I always felt like I would leave eventually.
Los Angeles always felt transitory to me. I loved a lot of things about it, but it never felt like forever. The second time I lived there I even saved my moving boxes underneath the bed and never hung art on the walls!
Of all the places I've been and lived, Seattle has felt most like home to me, which is probably why I moved here four different times. But even now, I'm open to adventure. My husband and I often talk about living abroad and we can't wait to start traveling again. I can see us spending at least a month or two each year in a new place.
Ultimately my real home is "love." If I'm with my husband and our son, I'm home.
“Ultimately my real home is “love.””
Snapshot of Biehle & her family courtesy of the artist’s instagram account.
What do you love about your home now?
I have a studio and space and trees and a lake!
Ironically, the place where I lived the longest amount of time in my life is an apartment that I thought we would only be in for a year at most. We moved into a small apartment in Seattle in 2010 when I was pregnant with our son and ended up staying there for nine years!
Last year we moved out of the city to be closer to our son's school. Now we live in a three-bedroom apartment and one of the bedrooms is my art studio. Before this, my "studio" was also my family’s living room, dining area, office, laundry room, and kitchen. I didn’t allow lack of space to hold me back – I even accepted an eight-piece hotel commission and worked on multiple paintings that were up to 5x8 feet in that tiny space! – but to say that I am hugely grateful for my own room now is an understatement.
Other things that I envisioned for our new place besides a separate studio were a view of either water or trees and some outdoor space for us to enjoy. Our third-floor apartment has a balcony with a view of evergreens. This also what I see when I look out of our bedroom and living room windows. I love the peaceful, treehouse vibe. Also, our building is right across the street from a beautiful lake! I share it often on Instagram. I'm so grateful to be so close to water, especially this year.
Speaking of homes, you’re about to do a pop up with Coco Kelley. Tell us about it!
I'm so excited to work with Cassandra! We've known each other for almost a decade and I have always admired her creative vision and sense of style. The pop-up is actually a sort of soft launch for a new shop that she's opening in early 2021. We collaborated on nine abstract landscapes for the launch and I'm so excited to share them with everyone.
I think that bringing a sense of calm into our home always feels important, but 2020 took that need to an entirely new level. Spending more time with my family in our space this year led me to assess my immediate surroundings and figure out what would make our environment more comfortable and cozy. I considered the type of energy I wanted to emphasize in each room and decided what I should bring in or remove to achieve that goal. With travel essentially out of the question, inspiration gathering from our adventures were limited to nearby parks, lakes, forests, and coastal areas. I've never felt luckier to live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest!
When Cassandra and I first discussed our painting collaboration I knew that I wanted to create a series inspired by nature and serenity. That's what I've needed lately and that's the type of energy that I want to send out into the world. I also knew that Cassandra's earthy color palette would be perfect for expressing the organic, natural, open feeling that I wanted to access and share.
While I didn't literally explore new cities or countries this year, moving through the creative process and shaping these imaginary landscape paintings allowed me to experience new worlds through my work. Trying out new-to-me color palettes (hello, green!) and acrylic mediums led me to create abstract landscapes that feel much softer and quieter than much of my earlier work. I'm honored to have had the chance to work with Cassandra on this project and thrilled with the way it pushed me in my own art practice.
I want to thank Melanie for being with us and also for putting beauty into the world especially in these trying times. We need it! Or at least, I need it. Speaking of beauty, if you’re looking for ways to bring a little more into your own home, hop on over to Coco Kelley’s pop up shop. It’s all online so you can feel safe shopping.
P.S. If, after it’s safe to travel again, anyone out there wants to sponsor another small but mighty retreat designed to empower and support women in each other’s creative endeavors, I’m your person!