Melanie Mauro

Artist Statement

I make prints and books that explore the feminine sphere. Drawing from historical texts about and by women, my works are studies of the female body and mind, and of women’s traditional domestic and societal roles. As I seek to understand the legacy of suppression, surrender, and expectation, I overlap, juxtapose and intersect images and symbols. Quotidian objects struggle against the boundaries of symmetry in an examination of the enduring concerns of the woman question.

I use handmade materials and labor-intensive processes, such as handmade paper, alternative process photography, letterpress and lithography. These materials and processes imbue my images of bone, inkblot, vessel and text with the weight of the past, illuminating the parallels between history and contemporary womanhood.