I’m alive!! Fellow artist Melissa Meier turned me into a nature goddess, and I’ve been pinching myself ever since, because I can’t believe I got to collaborate with and be a muse for the most genuinely talented Melissa Meier.🌱

‘Verdant Embrace’ is an artisanal wearable sculpture specifically crafted for me out of lush moss, foliage and plants-all from the artist’s garden. I love this title. I feel this title. Nature’s warm embrace while I sit and contemplate the streams of being percolating within me, all of which originated from nature’s cell. We are in an endless cycle of life and death, creation and destruction, but amongst all this tumultuousness what most of us really want is just the tender embrace of acceptance.

In ‘Verdant Embrace’ Melissa aims to celebrate the intersection of art, nature, and the human experience while exhibiting how beauty and strength can thrive in unexpected forms. Melissa’s narrative aligns with mine as someone who has been living with an extremely rare, progressive, and genetic muscle-wasting condition (GNE Myopathy). A mutation. Just as all of nature is. Just as blue eyes are. Mutations can create devastating disorders or beneficial adaptations and aren’t as random as once thought. Mutations are essential to evolution. Every genetic feature of every living organism was the result of a mutation first. What is natural is beautiful for it leads to life, just like bodies and minds are that are alternate to the statistical median. 

Brazilian mixed-media artist Melissa Meier is internationally recognized for her evocative installations, found-object sculptures, collages and photography. In her series “SKINS”, Meier has created sculptural and kinetic clothing hybrids, utilizing natural materials from nature such as leaves, lavender, eggshells, plants, wheat, rice, crystals, beetle wings, sticks, feathers, pinecones and seashells. Her wearable constructions blend female empowerment, exemplifying sensual strength, beauty and unity of life in harmony with the elements.

What an amazing experience this was. I’ve feel lucky not only because I got to do such an amazing collaboration, but moreso because in meeting Melissa I see the wonderful human that exists behind the art; an individual who is riddled with creative ideas and dreams. I’m pretty sure I found a magical new friend.

Melissa’s inventive and groundbreaking art feels like visual poetry as she aims to confront social and spiritual issues through not just one medium yet a curious exploration of anything and everything. Her love of nature is evident in her work as she seeks to capture harmony between the subject and the organic material that envelopes them.

Melissa designed a modular and adaptable concept that was quick to attach to me and my chair. It was such a lovely afternoon finally seeing her piece as her family supported her in realizing the final stages of her vision. It was a pleasure to have a front row seat, literally and figuratively, to the joy and excitement she expressed when it all came together. Lately, I’ve been starving for some creative juicers that i can slurp up and bounce off of, so this exchange was fulfilling. I’m a creative but I don’t always have to be in the driver seat, and love to appreciate witnessing a fellow artist in creative overdrive for their craft. It gives me as much joy, if not more, to watch others deeply fulfilled in their act of creative love. 

I am an industrial designer who became a self-taught illustrator, and it’s clear Melissa is not just a fine artist, but also a designer in every sense of the word, from designing the structures to realize her concept to aesthetically pleasing results beyond conceptual status. What I love about Melissa is she is an explorer; a true artist who doesn’t just do one thing, something I deeply identify with as my interests constantly evolve andI tend to bounce around in style interests. 

Melissa, you’re amazing, lovely, so humble and an endless creative ellipse. The experience of meeting you and experiencing your talent, which is different than being a visual admirer, has been such a pleasure and so fun. Your immense passionate energy for art and creativity radiates. You don’t just do art, art does you as it’s clear it’s a part of your every waking moment. Thank you. 💚🌱

I’ve modeled for brands, but working with fellow artists is different and something I prefer over companies, because it’s such a different and special experience. I love artists. We see the world differently. Our burning need to express is a form of love, because we express to share parts of who we are, like worn leaves all strung together creating a scrapbook of humanity’s stories and reason. In all our destruction we fail to see the possibility of creative construction. 

This collaboration got me thinking about creating over destroying. It’s easy to be destructive as we observe humanity throughout history in constant war and endless reprisal when we could be creating and imagining. What a waste of human cells and human potential. Life is short. Life is precious. This we know. In all the confusion and uncertainty of what this is all really about, I truly believe expression is the cornerstone to what it means to be human. It’s what sets us apart from all other species; this burning and fervent need to create, to know and to express this human experience through lenses that inquire what we think we know to be true as we lend ourselves to the altar of art in search for meaning and understanding. 

I truly wish humans could understand how little time we have here, so to waste it on something that doesn’t build life, like never ending war, feels severely wrong. We must always choose creating over destruction. We are living and we are dying, and what we do here matters. So make it matter. Destruction is of no service if it means severing your neighbors from their soul. 

When I feel confused I go back to what is natural, and what is natural is me, my human body, just as it is. I want to focus on influencing art and the creative spectrum so others understand how much breadth is in our stories. Disability shouldn't be segregated from art, rather infused within it. This unique and important perspective needs to infiltrate the creative world. 

#kamswheelstravel #kamsdraws #kamwrites @ https://instagram.com/kamredlawsk