Melissa Staiger was raised in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. She has a BFA from Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland and an MFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Staiger is a New York City-based artist and independent curator. Staiger was nominated and attended the Robert Rauschenberg Artist Residency in Captiva, Florida in 2013. In 2016, she was selected to be the Curator-in-Residence for Trestle Projects in Brooklyn, New York. “Open the Door” a solo exhibition opens at the Kent Place Gallery in Summit, New Jersey in September 2018. She is the Education Director of Trestle Workshops and a new board member at ABC No Rio.
I want to congratulate each artist that participated and entered Water Works with Maryland Federation of Art. With all of your contributions this program runs and supports your local artist community. The work chosen for this digital exhibition was based on “water depicted as the primary force, object, or consequences”. You will view various mediums such as drawing, watercolor, acrylic paint, oil paint, sculpture, and printmaking. I wanted the show to represent the range of mediums entered. I looked for line, composition, color, texture, and feeling in each work. I asked myself and “does this artwork reflect the mysterious qualities of water” or “is water seen as an elemental force” and “how far did the artist push our understanding with their vision”.