Melinda Hackett’s Art Comes Full Circle

A circle holds many meanings. It can be a space for a ritual, a wedding band, a globe, a cell or even the salt rimmed glass of a margarita. Melinda Hackett who has a home and studio in Southampton creates distinctive and colorful circular designs in many of her paintings which capture the human spirit on both an aesthetic and soulful level.
“Circles are everything from our head to our planet. They are round and feminine and very pleasing,” Hackett says although acknowledging the darker side of nature, the coronavirus, as she never imagined painting pandemics.
Rather than capturing nature in direct representation, her work is a reflection of its impact. She explains, “I am involved in the play of interior and exterior space. On one hand; interior, intimate, house, personal — and on the other; exterior, immense, universe, cosmos. My paintings represent both states, the near, the far, the view through a telescope, the view through a microscope, the sheltering sky, the intimate forest. My paintings create worlds full of images that float, hover, creep, spin, hang, roll or sleep in corners.”
Hackett’s artistic interest started when she was an art history major at Hobart/William Smith then continued with her MFA at Parsons/New School. “I originally thought I’d write about art but I much prefer making it,” says Hackett, “The study gave me both the history and references of what came before me. I knew I could never paint like John Constable or J.M.W. Turner so I wanted to do my own thing and make my work recognizable.” Her abstract paintings have diverse influences from German expressionist Max Beckmann to American modernist Arthur Dove to Neo-expressionist Elizabeth Murray.

Oil is Hackett’s preferred medium either on canvas or paper and her use of color and form pop off the surface. Her art work’s vibrancy has earned her many fans and is collected by top designers such as Jamie Drake, Jeff Lincoln and Steven Gambrel for their clients. “I’m always amazed when people say, ‘I love your work,’ and I ask where they have seen it,” says Hackett, “It may be they saw my painting at the Parrish Art Museum or on Instagram or at various shows such as at folioeast or MM Fine Art or Julie Keyes Gallery or at the recent Takeover Artists in Residence at the Southampton Arts Center.”
The ultimate compliment for Hackett is to be hung in someone’s home, what she calls a living and breathing environment. This is an apt metaphor for her work which also seems to have its own organic life. She states, “The images contain a vital impulse, and are alive as if subjected to breezes, weather and climatic conditions. Different objects are moving through the picture plane at various rates of speed and in opposite directions, some gliding slowly and others whirring as if in a blender. There is a sense that the activity continues outside the borders of the paintings as the forms flirt with the edges or get chopped off by them. Some forms are only just coming into being while others have already ‘come out’ and some just like to watch.”
Hackett is also inspired by the circle of artists in the Hamptons, noting the adaptability of exhibiting from traditional gallery openings to drive by art shows. She notes, “It’s cool to be a part of this supportive artistic community here and we miss seeing each other.” She adds with a laugh, “My husband is pleased we’re not running around to seven openings on a Saturday but I kind of miss it.” Luckily Hackett has a full circle of life that includes the external and internal, “I have a rich inner life in my head.”
www.melindahackett.com