A walk in the woods will never be the same for me after seeing Melissa Rubin’s powerful show, Understory, at the Atlantic Gallery in Chelsea, NYC.

Before reading Melissa’s statement, and understanding the theme, I looked at each picture. Even without reading an explanation of Understory, the work stands on its own with beautiful abstractions and intricate layers. I was particularly drawn to the woven works, which have a dark and mysterious feeling.

After reading Melissa’s statement, I saw the work in a new light. The painted sides of the bigger pieces added to the conversation, as did the tangled masses of sticks. I really appreciate the cohesiveness of Melissa’s intention and the resulting body of work. 

Here is Melissa’s statement, which includes an explanation of her process.

UNDERSTORY is an ode to a place that simply still exists; it is a meditative, emotional and visual study of the natural environment where Melissa Rubin lives and works, in southeastern Vermont. The world below the canopy of the trees, the understory, is teeming with life and decay. The layers of raw materials become deep inspiration for her imagery and approach to creating her art. Melissa’s work is comprised of many layers of papers, monoprints, paints, and various organic materials, such as wax, powdered pigments, dried grasses, branches, carbon, ash, silver leaf, marble dust and clay. Evocative of forest underlayers, the imagery alludes to entangled, interconnected webs of trees, branches, membranes, neural networks, flowing springs, as well as the infinite night sky of Vermont. The understory can also be utilized in a literary sense; it is the architecture that undergirds, gives meaning to, and supports a story. Like the world below the canopy, it is moveable and fluid. In addition to the physical environment, Melissa’s work reflects the expansive, psychological experience of space. Exploring the terrain and its impact on her relationship to the environment, Melissa creates pictorial references to textures, branches, decay, and growth, all woven together to form a depiction of her outer and inner landscape. The media she uses functions as her personal vocabulary of expression, as proxy to emotional states of mind. She consciously works with materials that help to facilitate a sense of light, darkness, mystery, and possibility.

Written by Nancy Spears Whitcomb, a member of New England Wax