Hi, my name is Melissa Hernandez. I am an aspiring practicing artist who's advancing to create art projects and a body of work that inspires and empowers others to grow and plant seeds for positive change. I'm also developing my ideas and building my experience to integrate my skills, perspective, and art form: visual storytelling with creative writing. My work embodies notions of a garden as it relates to cultivating growth and nourishment.
I was raised in Brooklyn, New York, for about 10 years. With ancestry in the Dominican Republic, I was born in 1985 on Veteran’s Day, at the Brookdale Hospital Medical Center. Weighing 7 lbs. with 2 oz., I was a fuzzy baby with a head full of hair and puffy cheeks that were big enough to keep my eyes always squinting. From infancy, I was deeply admired, as most children should be. I am the middle child; I have four siblings.
Growing up, I was noticeably quiet with a big imagination, and I found boundless joy in visually expressing my ideas, feelings, and values. When I attended elementary school in Brooklyn, New York, I participated in several theatrical performances. However, I became more expressive through the visual arts which were integrated in my fourth grade class.
Striving For Excellence Since 1999
On entering High School, I began writing creative short stories and poems and drawing from observation while I continued to use my imagination to explore a variety of styles and techniques. I began to write and draw almost every day throughout my four years in High School from 1999 to 2003. On the 12th day of February in 2003, Jacquelin Downey, my former Studio and Drawing A.P. Teacher at Piper High School, wrote a letter of recommendation stating:
“I am writing this recommendation on behalf of Melissa Hernandez, my student for the past four years, in art and advanced A.P. art at Piper H.S. Melissa has the enthusiasm for two people, at least! Her persistent energy and constant work ethic is astonishing. Melissa faces and overcomes challenges that others would shrink from! Melissa has a forceful positive attitude about herself, her world, others, her artwork, and her future. She is truly committed to making a difference. Melissa’s art skill improves and changes constantly because she pushes the edges all the time... A little further each time... Taking risks with the principles of art and the elements of design. Melissa takes charge of color and line as no other student I have ever had. It is a pleasure to watch her delve deeply into her work and pull out what she pulls out of herself through her art. I recommend Melissa with the utmost respect and confidence in her future.”
Life Is What We Make It, so Let Us Make It Meaningful
I am an indirect utilitarian, storytelling artist! I'm giving my work a function/purpose. I strive to serve humanity through ingenuity: cleverness, originality, and inventiveness in the storytelling arts which stimulates and permits growth, or self development and human flourishing.
My artistic style has been subconsciously influenced by and developed out of boundless ideas, drawn forth from American culture, universal themes, and an openness to foreign ideology. I aim to reveal simple truths (hence, provokes thought, curiosity, inquisitiveness, and personal growth) through constructing allegorical depictions and storytelling. I hope to help people do the right thing, and as a result, increase the quality of humanity (or life in its entirety) and bring about positive social change. No matter what happens, I believe that the visual arts can inspire us all to re-activate our playful inner child through creativity which has the real power to catalyze (or bring about) individual growth for global human flourishing. I hope to enrich the quality of all (different) walks of life (e.g., lawyers, plumbers, hairdressers, etc.).
I was raised in Brooklyn, New York, for about 10 years. With ancestry in the Dominican Republic, I was born in 1985 on Veteran’s Day, at the Brookdale Hospital Medical Center. Weighing 7 lbs. with 2 oz., I was a fuzzy baby with a head full of hair and puffy cheeks that were big enough to keep my eyes always squinting. From infancy, I was deeply admired, as most children should be. I am the middle child; I have four siblings.
Growing up, I was noticeably quiet with a big imagination, and I found boundless joy in visually expressing my ideas, feelings, and values. When I attended elementary school in Brooklyn, New York, I participated in several theatrical performances. However, I became more expressive through the visual arts which were integrated in my fourth grade class.
Striving For Excellence Since 1999
On entering High School, I began writing creative short stories and poems and drawing from observation while I continued to use my imagination to explore a variety of styles and techniques. I began to write and draw almost every day throughout my four years in High School from 1999 to 2003. On the 12th day of February in 2003, Jacquelin Downey, my former Studio and Drawing A.P. Teacher at Piper High School, wrote a letter of recommendation stating:
“I am writing this recommendation on behalf of Melissa Hernandez, my student for the past four years, in art and advanced A.P. art at Piper H.S. Melissa has the enthusiasm for two people, at least! Her persistent energy and constant work ethic is astonishing. Melissa faces and overcomes challenges that others would shrink from! Melissa has a forceful positive attitude about herself, her world, others, her artwork, and her future. She is truly committed to making a difference. Melissa’s art skill improves and changes constantly because she pushes the edges all the time... A little further each time... Taking risks with the principles of art and the elements of design. Melissa takes charge of color and line as no other student I have ever had. It is a pleasure to watch her delve deeply into her work and pull out what she pulls out of herself through her art. I recommend Melissa with the utmost respect and confidence in her future.”
Life Is What We Make It, so Let Us Make It Meaningful
I am an indirect utilitarian, storytelling artist! I'm giving my work a function/purpose. I strive to serve humanity through ingenuity: cleverness, originality, and inventiveness in the storytelling arts which stimulates and permits growth, or self development and human flourishing.
My artistic style has been subconsciously influenced by and developed out of boundless ideas, drawn forth from American culture, universal themes, and an openness to foreign ideology. I aim to reveal simple truths (hence, provokes thought, curiosity, inquisitiveness, and personal growth) through constructing allegorical depictions and storytelling. I hope to help people do the right thing, and as a result, increase the quality of humanity (or life in its entirety) and bring about positive social change. No matter what happens, I believe that the visual arts can inspire us all to re-activate our playful inner child through creativity which has the real power to catalyze (or bring about) individual growth for global human flourishing. I hope to enrich the quality of all (different) walks of life (e.g., lawyers, plumbers, hairdressers, etc.).
