After graduating from Carleton with a BA in Studio Art, Melinda was awarded a Hixson-Lied fellowship from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she earned an MFA degree with a focus in mixed-media printmaking and book arts. While in Lincoln, Melinda organized several art events and exhibitions as co-founder and president of Visual Artists in Practice, the graduate art student association. She also traveled to China with the Boston Printmakers Artists Exchange and gave a presentation at the National Academy of Art on the topic of new American prints.
Upon completing her studies, Melinda moved to New York City where she works as an artist and freelance educator. Her work in print media examines the interconnections between the physical and the psychological, exploring metaphor and bodily experience. She has been awarded a number of grants for her creative work, including an NEA book arts publication residency at the Women’s Studio Workshop, a yearlong Keyholder residency at the Lower East Side Printshop and a BRIC Media Arts fellowship. Melinda has participated in more than seventy-five exhibitions, and her artist books are in more than twenty-five special collections, including those at Carnegie Mellon University, Yale University and Duke University.
As an educator, Melinda has taught art and art history classes for the City University of New York. She twice worked as a teaching assistant on Carleton’s Studio Art in the South Pacific seminar. Most recently, Melinda has taught art to at-risk urban populations at community centers through Harborview Art Program, a New York City agency. Some of the community centers she has worked with are in Chinatown, allowing her to use her Chinese language skills learned at Carleton. Melinda has twice curated the agency’s annual citywide art show and helped coordinate its museum tours program.