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Polymer Clay Artist Melanie West's Path to Green Living (and Many-Colored Art)by Kristin Sutter
Published: March 20, 2009  Photo courtesy of Melanie West.
Childhood summers for West meant seven weeks on an island in Maine's Penobscot Bay with her family. The island's lack of phones, electricity, and running water led to lots of learning opportunities. Her mother -- a teacher and West's biggest influence -- was always equipped with field guides, microscopes, and wicker baskets full of art supplies. These experiences inspired her to get her Bachelor of Science degree in natural sciences, with a focus in environmental science, from State University of New York (SUNY)-Purchase.
On the 20th anniversary of Earth Day in 1990, West co-founded, with Richard Dale, the Sonoma Ecology Center in Sonoma, Calif. Her community's celebration of the date got such a great response that she, Dale, and others secured a permanent space and started collecting a library in order to be a resource for the community. The center has since grown to include community projects, research, gardens, and trails.
West worked as a professional photographer for years, specializing in architectural photography. When she moved to Maine, she started working in the Audubon Expedition Institute's admissions office, eventually becoming the admissions director for the program, which is now part of Lesley University, in Belfast, Maine. She left the job about 8 years ago after developing fibromyalgia, a condition characterized by muscle, ligament, and joint pain which made it difficult for her to work and to interact with nature in the ways she had throughout her life.
However, the enforced break has given her the opportunity to get back into artwork. "It became very cathartic for me to exercise my right brain," she says. Although she's dabbled in many media, she likes polymer clay because it's very immediate, the potential for what you can do with it is diverse, and it's full of color. She says, "The two things that were really helping me [deal with fibromyalgia] were my art and the spiritual aspects of nature. It became evident only a year or two ago that I needed to find a way to combine the two. That's what's been happening for me in the last year, and as I've been able to do that, it's really been a boon to my work. Suddenly I'm in a divine place where my spiritual and creative sides are able to meet and play." She says the joy she experiences is coming out in her work, and people who are interested in her work are being attracted to that joy. --Kristin Sutter
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