Melissa Sharplin

Flying High

A near death experience has had a profound effect on a leading artist and her work.

Being an artist is, at times, a blessing and a curse. One moment, you’re revelling in the joy of creation and the next, nothing seems to be going right; irritation sets in and life appears empty.
Depression strains creativity but once overcome can open an artist’s eyes to new possibilities.
This is just what happened for New Zealand’s foremost new pop realism artist, Melissa Sharplin, who launched her first international collection, Swit-Swurl (the onomatopoeia of the cat call) in Sydney last November.

The collection was birthed after Melissa experienced a close call with death and an ensuing encounter with depression.
While on holiday at a friend’s wedding in the southern coastal village of Sa'anapu on Upolu Island, Samoa, Melissa was woken in the early hours of September 29, 2009 by a friend screaming and the jolt of an earthquake.
An 8.3 quake (the largest of 2009) shook the small island causing a massive tsunami to flood through the Pacific Islands, killing at least 100 people.
“I looked out to sea and the wave had smashed against the reef and was coming towards us,” Melissa recalls.
From her beachside resort, quick thinking saw her and some friends run to their 12-seater van 100 metres down the beach.
“We were screaming at each other to get the door open and just managed to get in when the wave washed over us.”
The van was picked up and landed in a mangrove forest with its back windows blown out.

In the months following the ordeal, Melissa felt ‘on a high’, relishing in her new lease on life after cheating death. But soon after, when her dog died and a close friend committed suicide, she fell into deep depression.
“I went to this exhibition in a dream and saw a painting. When I woke, I raced to the studio and made Owl. From that painting, came the whole collection about choices and freedom. Women these days have the right to make any choice we want – much like birds.”

The thirteen oil-on-canvas works follow on from her successful 2008 collection Retro Nude, which sold out at her New Zealand show.
Using the pop art narrative of consumerism, the paintings were created from images of women in fashion advertising, who were then paired with birds, building a story within the works.
Clever characters like the Magpie model, who dons a helmet to protect her from the wild bird and Miss Swandri, who daintily covers a beautiful white swan from the pouring rain are key works in the collection.

As a new pop realism artist, Melissa has gathered inspiration from consumerist avenues, similar to the structures followed by artists such as Andy Warhol, Jeff Coons and Roy Lichtenstein, with surrealistic/realistic inspiration from James Rosenquist and Claudio Bravo.
Pop art has always been a genre that thrived on consumerist popularity and advertising, and collections were often exhibited outside of galleries. Melissa’s exhibition followed this route, exhibiting at the Audi showroom in both Christchurch and Sydney.

Melissa began her oil painting career here before travelling internationally as a New Zealand artist. After receiving international acclaim and recognition in both New Zealand and the UK, Melissa returned to Christchurch and is now under constant demand for commissioned work.
This month, Melissa has been invited to show Swit-Swurl in the Audi Centre Sydney Fashion event. She is also in the process of designing her own range of interiors, fabrics, tiles and homewares as well as working on an exhibition which she says will be “extremely controversial”.
“It has been four years in the making and will be extremely profound. My work has been very feminine and beautiful but this next collection will be different and edgy.”

Nakita Ardern
www.melissasharplin.com