In This Moment: The Rabbit by Melay Meza Dierks. This one of a kind art piece is based off the photo of In This Moment, taken by photographer Jeremy Saffer.
24 x 36
Acrylic and oils on wood panel
$3950
"For my piece, I was thrilled to get my first pick. In This Moment is a band I have listened to and admired since I was introduced through Pandora's algorithm. At the time, I had just moved to Long Beach and had recently received my MFA and became a single mother. I danced at a gentleman's club a few days a week which gave me the liberty to spend time with my child and work at establishing an art career. I faced many challenges and the music, the lyrics, from this band were powerful enough to inspire me to maintain and power through tough times. Being a woman who has made her way through male dominant institutions such as ad agencies, tattoo shops and even in the art world, has filled me with so many emotions that parallel what I hear from this band. Their music explores the struggle of the female condition in a world of judgment through emotionally charged lyrics. I was particularly drawn to celebrate a female lead in a metal band, with a genre that has consisted of mostly male members. As a non religious female artist, I saw an opportunity to use the phrase Idol Worship to fit my own interpretation for glorification. I used two photos for reference from Jeremy Saffer's file that created a flicker for the rest of what I would create. Inspired by tattoo culture and as a tattoo artist, I was compelled to create an image that could allow me to work with the subject's skin, using my own body as a form of reference, creating more room for meaning and symbolism. Forever inspired by the infinite measure of the universe, the setting had to be other worldly and ethereal in creating this montage of magic." - Melany Meza Dierks
Bio
Melany Meza-Dierks was born in Caracas, Venezuela January 22, 1983. Her family moved to the United States when she was still in diapers. Growing up American-Venezuelan in a Latin family pushed her to question perfection, religion and traditional gender roles in society. Conflicted by her surroundings, she was forced to constantly question the expectations in life, as a Venezuelan woman, an American woman, a daughter, a mother and an artist. Developing a stutter from age 6-12 made it difficult to socialize in school, so drawing other students became the primary method of establishing relationships and recognition from others. Portraiture had been consistent and strong in her practice and lead to further explorations of the human form, the figurative and the conditions that apply to the narrative. She moved to CA from AR in 2004 and received her BFA in Communication Arts from Otis College of Art and Design in 2007 and established herself as a graphic designer and storyboard artist but, would later find herself back in touch with her roots as art teacher, painter, street and tattoo artist showing work with a few galleries and participated in a show at Coachella in 2012. A few years after giving birth in 2013, she received her MFA from Otis in 2016, with a focus on painting. Shortly after receiving her Masters, her work has displayed at several galleries in Los Angeles. In 2016, she moved to Long Beach, where she would maintain the balance of working at a tattoo shop, painting in the studio and on the streets with several murals highlighting her portraiture located in Los Angeles County. At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, she was commissioned to paint several memorial murals inspired by Kobe Bryant, opening doors to many more opportunities. She currently lives in Long Beach and works from her studio as a full time painter, writer and designer.