Feminine Nature
Artist: Melissa Johnston — Women of the Ozarks
Women of the Ozarks is a collaborative show at Ozark Beer Company featuring female artists from the Ozark Mountain region of Arkansas. Our mission is to spotlight local, female-identifying artists, to bring Northwest Arkansas meaningful art in various media, and to provide an opportunity for our community to engage with local artists, and one another. Women of the Ozarks was founded by Tram Colwin and Claire Pongonis, who are visual artists, art educators, and advocates for sharing art with Northwest Arkansas.
Our 2024 inaugural exhibition will present a collection of art from 6 incredibly talented artists working in various media, as they express their unique interpretation of the show’s theme, “Feminine Nature”.
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Lifelong resident of Northwest Arkansas; Melissa describes herself as a creative, wife, dog mom, nature lover, avid thrifter, and coffee enthusiast. These themes are often reoccurring influences in her art as she explores illustration through traditional and digital mediums. Melissa graduated from John Brown University with a degree in Illustration. She has always been inspired by the fairy tales, whimsical illustrations, and the wooded countryside of her childhood. Her art seeks to find magic in the ordinary, typically emphasizing a mixture of gouache paint and ink line work. Her current focus is to replicate traditional mediums as authentically as she can into a digital format, blurring the line between the two.
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I was quick to identify with this year’s WOTO theme, “Feminine Nature”. To see the beauty and vibrancy in the seemingly dull and inconsequential is to truly experience nature. The brown crunchy leaf turned translucent gold in winter light and the summer sun casting floral shadows at your feet. Like nature; femininity is experiential, cyclical and personal. Our femininity is, quite literally, written on our faces. From the glow of spring and absence of worry lines on the cheeks of a youthful daughter, to the delicate laugh lines etched on the temples of a wiser autumn mother. There is beauty and vibrancy in all seasons. My goal for this collection is to share a story of generational femininity from my lens as a native Arkansas daughter.
