the 1st iteration JANUARY 2020 LAYERS 1 AND a 1/2
THE UNDERBELLY OF LAYER 2 COMPLETED
The first Found Object Compilation
Melanie dai Medeiros
eastbayartri
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The “Landscape” Series explores the evolving relationship between ecology, community, and stewardship. Each installment will focus on a local historical site evolving back into a more natural state.
The next proposed body of work centers on Brickyard Pond in Barrington, reflecting its delicate ecosystem and the historical and present impact of the surrounding community on the land and wildlife. Family members join me in scouting, cleaning, and collecting materials—some transformed into artworks, others responsibly recycled or disposed of—to embody an active dialogue between art-making and environmental care.
Rooted in Rhode Island’s diverse landscapes, Landscape documents the shifting ecologies of these communities, following earlier work on Prudence Island supported by the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts. From large-scale, wall-climbing drawings to tactile paper pulp sculptures made from found and repurposed materials, each piece invites viewers into an interactive experience where the landscape itself becomes the narrator. Brickyard Pond is an interesting addition to the series as it is a man-made ecological feature that has shifted from quarry to wildlife habitat in recent generations. This lifelong series serves as an evolving time capsule—an artistic record of our shared environment and a call to stewardship through sustained creative observation.
Melanie dai Medeiros, Found Objects 3, 2025
Melainie dai Medeiros, Landscape Fragment: Haines Park (November Evening), mixed media, 2025
Melanie dai Medeiros, Found Objects in a Quahog Basket, 2023
Melanie dai Medeiros, Jawbone, sculptural paper, mixed media, 2022
“Landscape” is a continual work in progress, currently funded by the Make Art grant funded by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Check out the “Preview Works in Progress” tab for current progress on this continual work in progress.
In the summer of 2022, “Landscape” hovered above in its 4th installation at Coggeshall Farm at 1 Colt Drive in Bristol, RI 02809.
Like the bayside it is inspired by, this installation has shifted its presentation yet again. This time the drawing cascades down from the rafters encouraging the viewer to look up and walk underneath it to discover what lies within its layers. This installation is the first contemporary art exhibit for this historic farm and the first time I have installed artwork in the company of sheep.
“Landscape” Coggeshall Farm, 2022
“Landscape” Coggeshall Farm, 2022
Transfiguration 5.7.22 Jamestown Arts Center. 18 additional feet of drawing since its last iteration. Like the bayside it is inspired by, this installation has shifted presentation. This time the drawing climbs 11 feet up the wall and cascades toward the viewer 7 feet on the floor encouraging the viewer to investigate and discover what lies within its layers.
“Landscape” Jamestown Arts Center, 2022
detail of “Landscape” Jamestown Arts Center 2022
“Landscape” MASSARTxSOWA gallery, 2021
detail of “Landscape” MASSARTxSOWA gallery, 2021
Transfiguration 3 2022 MASSART SOWA “Landscape” climbs the wall for the first time rising 8 feet and crawling toward the viewer 11 feet off the wall. This installation introduces found objects into its folds.
Simultaneously seeking the past and present of a parcel of coastline, a drawing in three dimensions is sprawled across the floor engaged in the act of translating a stretch of earth manipulated by time, elements, man-inflicted trauma and its powers of rejuvenation. The work is a visual experience that encourages the viewer to look in new ways and discover what lies before them. The paper climbs, rolls and overlaps in haphazard layers and overhanging formations in response to an intersection of land and bay. Monochromatic palette emphasizes the variety of forms found within search for the elements of ecology, geology, and history of this coastal intersection centrally situated in Rhode Island. Charcoal lines oscillate from representational depictions to rhythms and patterns referencing the composition of the soil itself. Overlapping and intertwined elements giving voice to the ecology taken for granted under our feet. This installation examines the memory contained within a place while celebrating the land’s innate cyclical and regenerative qualities.
Transfiguration 2 6.25.21 4’x19’3”x28” Landscape IMAGO Foundation for the Arts. Warren, Rhode Island
detail of “Landscape” IMAGO Foundation for the Arts, 2021
Click here to view our Virtual Thesis Show as an interactive experience.
LANDSCAPE (THESIS INSTALL), charcoal, abaca pulp, watercolor paper, multimedia paper, gampi paper and graphite on reflective mylar, 2020.
A note on the process for creating “Landscape”
This piece is the result of direct observation on a small island in Narragansett Bay. Initially and periodically the land is explored in multi-generational excursions with my elders and children. Knowledge is passed down with equal respect from fisherman, farmers, hunters, biologists, and geologists about the land as we observe it in nature.
Additionally artifacts from the land itself are borrowed and studied from the remains of mammals and invertebrates who knew this land intimately, to the rocks and branches that have been weathered by the winds and tides, to the debris left behind from modern day boaters, trash barges, fisherman, past residents, and the abandoned military base. Each piece gathered has its own textures, smells, shapes, forms, and history. Once gathered and observed the objects are then rendered repetitively on a massive 4’x27’ scroll of paper. Some objects are then recreated three dimensionally as a paper form.
After most of the large drawings were completed, I then took the large drawing and scaled it down redrawing it onto 4”x @27” long pieces of paper to recreate the larger piece. This smaller piece is seen here in these photographs. Both the macro and the micro version would ideally be displayed together but for visual impact the micro version is being used virtually.
With the macro perspective I am presenting an overarching view of the power of the landscape. With the micro perspective, I focus on the details to examine a way to implement my existing point of view and have modified it in response to my current situation.
While a micro version of this work was always an impulse for me to follow to figure out the abstract moments of the larger piece, our current pandemic is what made this interest become a reality as a companion if not miniaturized alter ego of my original (and continued) interpretation of this coastal intersection of land and bay.