Check out Melanie Ponchot’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melanie Ponchot.

Melanie, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
First, I gotta say that my story feels like a full expression of the “learning to un-learn” practice like the Pablo Picasso quote: “It took four years to paint like Raphael and a lifetime to paint like a child.” In my twenties, I was deeply drawn to Classical Realism. I loved the challenge of it, felt energized by the difficulty of it, and was enamored by how it had the power to transport. I took oil painting super seriously and learned from great teachers. I loved to paint a face and capture a likeness. I took every portrait commission I could get my hands on and counted it all as great practice. And it was a wonderful little business for me! Commissions piled up … at one point it felt like I had a never-ending list of clients waiting for a finished painting and my “career” felt seemingly successful. But then I hit DRAMATIC burn-out. It is a difficult thing to hold onto your passion when it becomes a “business.” Weariness combined with being incredibly busy raising my own children forced me to stop painting all-together.

A couple of years went by before I found myself sitting across the table from my boys who drew with playfulness and joy. I encountered such unbridled innocence like they didn’t have the same mental weapons that I had stored in my brain ready to over-think and rush in with all the rules. They re-introduced me to what it felt like to enter art-space with freedom. They drew with wild tenderness and raw beauty, and I was desperate to learn from their openness. In my own small way, I had to deconstruct my reasons for making art. It was a wonderfully fun un-doing… to be led by my children back to the elements of glue and scissors and construction paper. I began to follow imagination as my lead rather than my former tightly-held path of “tradition.” There is beauty ready to be seen everywhere and in everything and I needed to be reminded of simplicity in its rawest sense. After all, what is art but the making and tearing down of capturing some transcendent beauty or capturing a process of something deep within us that must be born. In doing so, we learn how to see. It’s a child’s work. Some of the greatest art we can participate in incomes when we can find the courage to defy the rules and drown out the very persistent voice of “perfectionism.” Today I say I have a long way to grow as I’m forever evolving, but I’m committed to creativity and work that feels like “play.”

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My favorite things to draw/paint: bears wearing hats, or bunnies with bowties. I draw family portraits (will forever love capturing a likeness), I create colorful bugs, I make astronaut cats and rainbow dogs and paint little characters on the back of macaroni boxes. I have a never-ending obsession with drawing robots and bringing cute things to life. I love drawing people and exploring all the different eyes/noses/brows and rosy cheeks that can spring a character into life. I’d call my work a bit quirky, sometimes naive, and whimsical. I’d like to pursue more ambitious projects possibly a return to large-scale paintings. I love the ability to tell stories and invent characters. Currently, I’m in the middle of illustrating a 32-page children’s book, and I’m always on the lookout for projects that spark playfulness.

The sterotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
Arrgh! That’s such a difficult question to answer! I have ZERO advice for people facing financial challenges as I burned-out so badly when my art was actually profitable. I so often heard that “finding balance” was the magic answer but I couldn’t get there mentally. The last few years I’ve taught at local art centers as a means of floating our finances in-between projects.

I do have advice for aspiring illustrators:
Make time to do work that YOU love. The right projects (and clients/agents/publishers) will find you! But you gotta be knee deep in the kind of work that you brings you life. I take seriously the “heart-flutter” cue my heart gives me when I stumble into an idea that feels like it needs to be birthed or when I’m suddenly struck with inspiration. I’d say that learning to trust your own voice as an artist is a life-long never-ending endeavor. Your artistic voice can change and will surprise you over time. I’d also tell anyone to practice setting up “small” projects that don’t feel like a gigantic commitments. It helped me so much to set tiny goals as I continued to“unlearn” if that makes sense. Lastly, KEEP A DAILY SKETCHBOOK. As an illustrator, my sketchbook is where I capture ALL my ideas for future projects. It’s the first place I go when I’m in a creative rut or need to springboard ideas. I’m forever stirring that pot to see what emerges!

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
You can find my work on my website www.melanieponchot.com. I accept an occasional commission and love doing custom illustration work. I teach a Drawing Portfolio class at the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art and run an Illustration course at The Art Place in Marietta.

Contact Info:

• Address: Roswell, Georgia
• Website: www.MelaniePonchot.com
• Phone: 404/291-0238
• Email: email me thru my website
• Instagram: @melanie_ponchot

Image Credit:
All artwork created by Melanie Ponchot.

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