Melissa Haslam

AM: How did you come to be a full time artist? We heard that you studied Multimedia Technology and worked at a software company. What was it like in the working world? Do you miss it?
MH: I really enjoyed the job that I had. I was at the company for five years full-time making graphics and educational multimedia. After awhile I found that the only way to move forward in my career was to move into management-type roles. I wasn’t excited by managing projects and found I was more interested in taking my image-making skills further and working on my own ideas, so becoming an artist seemed like the natural way to move forward. I don’t miss it, but I’m glad that I did it because it makes me really appreciate what I am doing now and it provided me with a good foundation of professional working skills.


AM: You seem fascinated with plants and girls as these two subjects seem to pop up a lot in your works. Any particular reason or inspiration for that? Is it true that you try to incorporate flowers/plants from your homeland of Australia? What other subjects have you been thinking about trying out in the future?
MH: It’s an instinctive thing, but I paint females because I am one and it is what I relate to the most. It’s an entry point for me into the world that is being painted, or the mood that is being portrayed. The plants interest me for many reasons, firstly for their aesthetics. Aesthetics are very important to me and so they are important to my work. It’s so common for humans to find plants and flowers beautiful that there must be something in our biology that makes it so - nature rather than nurture. I have been reading some books on botanical illustration and the stories of botanists risking their lives to discover new, exotic plants to draw or take back to their homeland and the status associated with these finds. It’s a romantic view of the world.
I’ve noticed many artists draw from their cultures and things around them. I like that because it makes the work more about the person who created it rather than relying on common cliches, so I’ve been thinking about how I can do that with my own work. I’ve been looking more into Australian flora and fauna, but also things that exist in Australia that have been brought over from other cultures.


Check her out at http://www.melissahaslam.com/index.shtml