Swimming to the Island

Swimming to the IslandMelissa Lakey is an artist and illustrator based in Joshua Tree, California, where the windows of her art studio look out onto the Mojave Desert. Her colorful mixed media paintings explore the magic of the American Southwest, as well as night, summertime, road trips, solitude, and friendship. She creates work based on both real memories and imaginary places shed like to visit swimming, dreaming, in the sunshine and under the moonlight. About this

these pieces take ideas that I had been exploring in the backgrounds of my work and makes them in to the focus

tangled scenes

ending with color glazes

animals and the natural world

and fragility of nature through the use of botanical elements

from Sir Wilfred Grenfell College and went on to earn an M

Make salmon splash and bear cubs bustle with each push of a durable novelty element in this sweet and interactive morning read-aloud

stacked on me as we move along in this life

Use care when installing and if needed

and detailed works of art using watercolor painting and hand-cut paper–all meticulously glued in layers

14kt gold-fill ring and setting

creating simple