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Melissa Washington Cross

“ We shall not cease from exploration, and at the end of all our exploring we will arrive where we started and know that place for the first time.“ - T. S. Eliot

ARTIST BIO

Melissa Washington Cross is an muralist and illustrator based in Los Angeles. Her work has been shown at TED global and Autodesk, featured on itunes and with Universal Music Group throughout Europe and Russia. Her large scale works are installed throughout Los Angeles and have appeared in solo gallery shows, most notably at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. In recent years, she has developed a thriving mural business.

Melissa grew up in the Appalachian area of Virginia, and earned her BFA with honors from Pratt Institute in New York. Her work is a combination of illustrations, collage, and mapmaking; all are imbibed with the need for exploration, curiosity, and discovery for the nuances of living. She moved to Cambodia in 2008 to fuel that need, teaching art and working in a group home for children from the city's landfill. Her teaching experience has included directing a thriving art program for Boys and Girls Club, creating a journalism program that was recognized throughout the state, leading summer programs for children teaching building skills with a focus on repurposing materials and conservation, and tutoring and leading outdoor exertions for teens from juvenile detention centers and group homes. In 2016 with a co-artist, she was awarded an artist-in-residency and launched a successful funding campaign to develop a project re-imagining the sciences with women using the backdrop of Wyoming and Montana landscapes.  

She lives with her husband and son and continues project-based work in illustration, murals, and instruction.

Teaching Philosophy

My goal with teaching is to harness and share the best pieces of my own artistic practice, the pieces that have at their most vital moments offered everything from a laboratory for self-discovery and a mental detox from societal frustrations to an opportunity to pursue the purpose and value of this lifetime. The chance to live deeply and explore the undercurrents of the everyday is, to me, a worthy definition of happiness. And as the pyrrhic hero Chris McCandless confessed, "Happiness is only real, when shared.” With teaching, I aim to share the possibilities inherent in the practice of art, whether it's creating a large mural to reach a wide audience or a sketchbook meant for the creator alone. I hope to clear the way for new and creative ways of thinking while providing an enthusiastic, open and constructive environment for those ideas to take root.

In this practice, art is often the conduit to a series of other goals, often relating to subjects not conventionally considered "artistic." In that vein, I fully support the idea that arts integration is one of the most valuable forms of teaching. I believe that allowing projects to naturally splinter out into the vast web of related concepts creates a connectedness that more deeply impacts the students. Offering information not in isolation, but as Goethe believed through "authentic wholeness," allows us all to see the world not divided and categorized, but through the many parts that reveal the whole. My curiosity has lead me into geography, literature (particularly Russian), science and nature, history, spirituality, as well as art. I believe that curiosity is one of the most important qualities that we can foster in children. There is great joy in seeing the light go on in a child's face, when fascination takes hold and interest is peeked. When they exclaim, "No way!" and must know more. This is a guiding principle in my teaching practice. I find a great satisfaction in fanning the flames of curiosity, and build ample time into my lessons for creative and inspiring interludes to take place.

With adults I chose to focus even less on the output of an art project. In a society that focuses almost solely on a black and white view of knowledge, where right and wrong are clearly delineated, memorization is the mode for attaining an education, an artistic practice can offer a vital refuge. Rarely in life are we free to take big risks and make big mistakes. Society often begs for success on the first attempt. However, as in life, mistakes make you stronger, give you more information about what you are capable of and show you specifically where you can improve. Using art as a fixture for experimenting with risk and failure, psychologically restores that sense of possibility. The willingness to try and fail easily filters out into other aspects of life. In my teaching practice, I try to focus almost exclusively on the process. By now The Journey is the Destination is a well-worn aphorism. Embodied by one of my favorite artists Dan Eldon, it still rings true. However, that process looks different for each class and each student. 

As I was the quiet and awkward child, I look for ways to fostering inclusivity, how to help each child connect. It's my goal to build a relationship with every person, understanding  their means of interaction, behavior, challenges and interests. By celebrating the diversity of a class and remaining flexible to the needs of each student, it is my hope that the benefits of practicing art can enhance my student's lives, bringing them on a journey of self-discovery and a sense of connectedness with each other and the wider world.

Artist Statement

Exploration, within the physical environment and conservation of the spaces that we inhabit, as well as an interest in the spiritual experiences that elevate us from the everyday define much of my work. These themes I've explored experimenting with a diverse range of mediums, including: small oil and acrylic paintings on canvas, large-scale murals, structural architectural pieces, theatrical photography, pen and ink, and importantly my ubiquitous sketchbooks, which I value most of all.

I am fascinated by nature's hard to reach places, high mountains, wild landscapes, and the physical and mental challenges to get there. I almost compulsively seek to challenge myself, venturing into uncomfortable situations, taking risks, and confronting fear. These experiences have had an indelible impact on who I am, the kind of art I make and how I hope to share it.

It is my goal to realize the freedom and vibrancy I feel in the mountains or exploring a new city with the work that I produce, to capture the environments that I move through. I was trained in a school of drawing called Reportage, which seizes on the immediacy of a changing environment; I am inspired by the challenge of capturing the intimacy and transience of a moment.  

I find the inner landscape is just as intricate and engaging. I have attempted to explore the emotional toll that grief and loss carry and how it shapes us.

Much of my work has an element of assemblage to it. I grew up in the woods at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, where my family built our house from logs and discarded materials from my father's construction work. This sense of finding purpose and usefulness in what could be deemed trash, as well as my aversion to waste, has informed much of my work. This appeared most notably in a series I created of wearable structural pieces using a collection of organic and repurposed materials. The pieces were also inspired by stores ranging from classic Russian novels to Cambodian apsara cravings. My interests often venture into the ancient and obscure, which appear again in my illustration work with cartography. For as long as I remember, I've been captivated by maps - how maps bridges the abstract with the concrete and visceral reality in which we live. Knowing that a series of lines and dots correspond to a vibrant land full of smells, tastes, and colors has always peeked my imagination.

Currently I split my time between illustration (most of it cartography)projects and murals. Murals challenge me to be seen, to say unequivocally that this piece is made for widespread attention.

City Mural Syllabus

Gallery