Activism in Full Color

When landscape artist Melanie Parke puts brush to canvas, the result is enthralling. Melanie so magnifies the color and grandeur of northwest Michigan's towering coastal dunes and blue expanses of fresh water that she is now earning critical notice as one of the region's most accomplished young masters. Melanie's search for beauty is influenced by her firm understanding of the crucial role that sound public policy plays in permanently protecting the beautiful scenes she paints.

In the early 1990s, Melanie worked with Ivan Miller, superintendent at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, to instill the same reverence for nature and policy in other artists. The artist-in-residence program they developed has since expanded to 20 other national parks. Melanie grew up in Indianapolis and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She spoke to us from her studio on Chief Road in Manistee County.

Q: What is it about northwest Michigan that drives you?
A: The land here is like nowhere else. The undulating dunes. The white pine forest. All that fresh water, and the Great Lakes. Those are natural features that inherently express openness, mystery, and beauty. That's why I am drawn to this landscape, and why I paint it.

Q: What part does public policy play in the scenes you paint?
A: These huge pieces of land that have been preserved at Sleeping Bear, and Nordhouse Dunes, and the Ludington State Park. I appreciate that. When you cross the first dune, and step into them, there is a wildness that makes your heart soar. My environmentalism is putting artwork out there that reminds the viewer of the reverence and inspiration that you feel when you step into these landscapes.

Q: How does art energize your environmentalism?
A: The landscape is an extension of a spark within each of us. It's a spark of freedom, revelation, and reverence. Art is my way to foster and encourage expression of those feelings. The landscape is about beauty. And beauty stimulates feelings of liberation, reverence, and exultation. Being in nature causes all of these feelings to swell. Beauty is so important because it drives the head and the hand. But we spend too much of our time in landscapes that are not beautiful. Wal-Mart is designed solely to appeal to base instincts. It's ugly.

Q: We see your name all over the place. You must be doing well.
A: Yeah, it's been wonderful. I've supported myself as a waitress until this year when I went to bigger canvasses. It was a risk because my expenses went up. I maxed out my credit card and accumulated $10,000 in debt. Then I met the owners of the Tvedten Gallery in Harbor Springs. I sent them my paintings and they sold almost every single one. The subject matter has a lot to do with it. The northwest Michigan landscape is an emotional draw for people.

Q: How did you fall in love with northwest Michigan?
A: My grandmother owned the oldest cottage in Leelanau County. It is in Leland, on the harbor, and is called Greycote. It was built in 1867. When I was a child, we also vacationed in an old cottage on North Manitou Island called the Monte Carlo. We rented it as a family before the National Park Service owned it. My earliest memories are from that island, walking miles and miles on the dirt roads. After I graduated from art school in Chicago, I came up here to paint the landscape, which haunted me -in the best way - as a child.

Q: You've been an Institute member since the very start six years ago. Why?
A: I joined the Institute because it's an educational and active organization that does not tiptoe around complex issues or powers that suppress good land use. It is devoted to the betterment of society through thinking smarter about how we use land. It offers the public a language, examples, speakers, and blueprints for people to live life beyond themselves. I think the Institute upholds beauty on a grand scale in that way. What really encourages me is that effective groups and advocates, like the Institute, are here to make sure these places stay beautiful. There is hope.

– Keith Schneider

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