A little about me
Fact 01
I'M MJ.
I was born and raised in Iowa, and moved to Missouri for College. Yearning for the mountains, I came out West and continued my love for art, community, and the environment.
Fact 02
RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE
I feel connected to the earth
through the memories I share with it. I attempt to evoke feelings in my
work that deal with the connections
between body and land,
environmental psychology, belonging, and the memories we leave in places.
Fact 03
PHOTOGRAPHY
My relationship with photography is inspired through the feelings nature evokes. It started with traveling to national parks with my family and wanting to take photos that captured the awe I had from the land. I've been discovering what it means to take a photo, and why we capture the moments we hold dear to us.
Fact 04
GLASS
I’m interested in the ability of glass to manifest a language of movement, freezing matter in a state of flux, where the ephemeral and intimate are captured. Because of this ability to freeze a moment, I compare glass to photography. Both the photographic image and glass are materials that represent an embedded memory with the poetics of their creation. My practice as a glass artist relies heavily on research and experimentation, understanding the materials to push them to their limits.
Artist Biography:
Melissa Jean Golberg is an interdisciplinary emerging artist living in Seattle, WA. She grew up in Iowa and studied Sculpture and Social Practice for three years at the Kansas City Art Institute in pursuit of her BFA, transferring to University of Washington Seattle for her BA. She is currently majoring in the Interdisciplinary Visual Arts program and minoring in Environmental Studies. Melissa Jean is best known for using photography and glass as materials to convey freezing moments in time, while additionally exploring themes of identity, belonging, environmental psychology, and the memories we leave in places. She says, “I feel connected to the earth through the memories I share with it.” Her current body of work is exploring concepts of the objectification and commodification of women, misogyny, and trauma, using language and glass as materials. She has worked and studied at Pilchuck Glass school, receiving a Fellowship in 2023; volunteered and photographed for Hilltop Artists in Tacoma, WA; and is the student Liaison for the University of Washington Seattle. Melissa Jean has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, including at LoosenArt in Rome, Italy.