Melissa Woodburn

I am inspired by using a variety of media to express statements about the rhythms and cycles of living. The creative nature of the universe excites me and I filter this through my lens of female experience. In 1987, I helped found and run a freestanding birth center, teaching meditation techniques to pregnant moms to open their sense of feminine power in labor. This profound experience still influences my art today and can be seen in the many vessel shapes and family groupings that I create.

I started working with fiber in 1996 and added ceramic back into my mix of media in 2001, as a way to personally heal after the violence of 9/11.

While using traditional materials (fiber and ceramic) and traditional methods (coiling and slab), I push the final product into a non-traditional sculpture, while honoring the original rhythms of the materials.