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Oil paintings by Michele Pope Melina
August 27-October 26
Meet the Artist: Sunday, September 7, 2-4 p.m.
Part of the Arboretum's year-long anniversary celebration, this exhibit pays tribute to the Arboretum/HRC's agricultural roots in this nostalgic, eloquent portrait of an American icon. Symbol of a vanishing era, of our collective history, of simplicity, of nurturing at its most basic, the barn is perhaps our most cherished, most uniquely American architectural form. Picturesque and still functional despite the disappearance of the way of life that they represent, barns are laden with meaning even for those of us who never lived on a farm. Michele Pope Melina grew up in farming country in Virginia and retains a deep affection for barns and their legacy. They give her hope and a feeling of optimism amidst the changes and challenges of our turbulent times. Melina is an award-winning artist whose work evokes 19th- and 20th-century landscape masters like George Inness, Sanford Gifford and Eric Sloane. A longtime member and friend of the Arboretum, she received much acclaim for her 2005 landscape exhibit in the Reedy Gallery.
"Since childhood old barns have made an impression on me. I remember them built to be big and strong and weather any storm. Their purpose was strictly for the need of the farmer, but most us of used their presence to know stability and understand tradition. Barns were the center of activity on a farm. During their lifetime many were never changed or altered; they remained constant, reliable. The midwestern barn we Minnesotans know has existed since the late 1880s, but it has been on the wane since the time I began to paint forty years ago. Now storytellers of the heartland, these beloved old structures are being torn down or just left to return to nature, on their own, with dignity. As our new neighborhoods encroach upon the old farms, we start to notice how precious they seem - until they are inevitably removed. To chronicle the changing times became my goal as I learned the techniques of painting and the history of art.
"My goal for this exhibition is to encourage viewers to hold onto tradition by sharing stories and memories of our past. This was a special time, this age of barns."
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