"The Frontiers Series” are investigations of man's interaction with the unexplored sublime, a landscape that is boundless yet terrifying.  They are not specific in their description of place or time, however they depict our interaction with an otherworldly landscape, one that is influenced by prophetic cinema, science fiction and survivalist grit.  I seek to investigate the sense of awe coupled with immense anxiety about the unknown, not through a fear of dying but through a fear of surviving.  The subplots of an otherwise master narrative consider the everyday; what would we harvest?, where would we live?, what would our ruins look like?  It is through manipulating the images digitally, through data bending and digital collage that I fracture the images, as a way to create a type of picture puzzle of limited information one might receive from a very distant location.  It is through painting them that I meditate on my own struggles with global conflict, strained economies, environmental uncertainty and political strife.

Melissa Wilkinson received her BFA in painting from Western Illinois University in 2002.  She then went on to receive her MFA in painting from Southern Illinois University in 2006.  Her work has been featured in wide reaching publications throughout the country including two editions of New American Paintings.  She has shown in various galleries nationally and internationally including South Korea, Canada and India and has won numerous awards throughout her career.  She has won several fellowships and grants including the Arkansas Arts Council Fellowship in Painting in 2012.  Her work is amongst private collections throughout the country and abroad.  She serves as Assistant Professor of Art-Painting at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.  She lives in Bono Arkansas where she lives with her beloved husband and three dogs. www.melissawilkinson.net