Melissa Jane Hampson-Smith BaHons Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, United Kingdom
BA Hons sculpture. Performance, installation, painting, film, craft, public festivals. Created environmental artworks and exhibition pieces in the UK and Europe. I currently make thought-provoking jewelry/ wearable sculptures and paintings covering the themes of environment, Space travel, and navigation, mining, the search for water, terraforming other planets and rewilding parts of planet Earth
Melissa Jane Hampson-Smith is a n environmental fine artist. She has studied in Lancashire and Oxford where she met Yoko Ono and made works under her instruction with fellow students. Many of her sculpture works were inspired by this as she moved on to Study at Brighton University. She has exhibited widely from the North West of the UK to Spain, back to Glastonbury and onto Cornwall. Creating works for both public and private collections and working with local Cornish and national groups for traditional celebrations and carnivals. A survivor of the 2004 Tsunami Melissa's recent work deals with extreme weather, medical intervention and discarded man-made materials. Space travel, mining asteroids, the search for water on other celestial bodies, the near future colonisation of planets and moons and re-wilding Planet Earth all inspire her works. Currently working in St Ives, Cornwall she hammers metals with beach stones, uses raw and cut gems and sets resins. Melissa has spent many years experimenting with single-use plastics to create a new material she calls Future Gemstones. Over the past couple of years Melissa has completed two art/science residencies with Mayes Creative and The Royal Astronomical Society and worked with Francesca Own using Raw Pigments in painting. Along with tending a real time living sculpture that is her re-wilded artist garden & studio. She is now creating sculptures, objet d'art and paintings for exhibition inspired by these residencies and by the past, present and future environments of Cornwall where she lives and works. She is a member with the Crafts Council, exhibits with Ruup and Form and holds regular workshops and open studios in St Ives and wider Cornwall.
Artwork
Pigment works. Painting made with & subsequent search for more., Pigments from the Cornwall mining industry., 2021 ongoing
'Tony going back into the mine', Chalk Pastel, grey pastel made from pigment collected in Rosevale Mine, Cornwall, reclaimed frame, 2021, 200 + P&P as part of #artistsupportpledge
Heirloom Ring For Ancestor Of Queen Nefertiti (2020), Quartz donut, blue chalcedony, citrine bullet, 3x blue howlite pyramids, slab of lapis lazuli, ’Future Gemstone’ - crafted with upscaled blister packet fused with resin, neon French pastels & glow in the dark pigment, two blue goldstones, pyrites, moss agate bullet, ruby , 2020, £1500
Terraforming Mars Bracelet, Resin, vintage test tubes, seeds, reclaimed neon pastels, paper ephemera, found threads, cubic zirconias, natural bees wax, sealing wax, 2019, £2300
Musical portraits for St Ives September festival 2021, 2021
Good night painting, 2021
Womb Piece, loss of Ancestors., Metal, Plaster mod rock, Indian sari cloth., 1998
Weaving Life memorial., Found Rams Horn & Shed Deer Antler collected during conservation works., 2000
Intergalactic space jewelry to navigate the universes., Jewellery, 2019, £300 upwards
'Charcoal Brooch for Making Marks' Part of the 'Making Marks & Traces' Collection., Wearable sculpture, 2019
100 Moons, Recycled rag paper & mixed media, 2018
'Jupiter Brooch, the Sister of the Nebra Sky Disk', Wearable sculpture, 2019
Beyond the Horizon 'Dres an GORWEL le may sedh an HOWL yn MOR' , oak & Brick/Ceramic, Brass, 2022
Goddes of fire & Ocean, Found bric/ceramic, 2022
Projects and exhibitions
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Exhibition pop up workshop studio & live events.10/06/2023 — 16/06/2023 A last minute opportunity to exhibit at the Salt House Gallery St Ives. Both myself & my daughter Gaia have been working en-plein air and in our garden studio on works here in Cornwall for the past 13 years. This was an opportunity to curate & exhibit work, have a popup studio space, shop & workshop space in the heart of St Ives artist... [Read more] |
Salthouse Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall UK | Details |
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YOKO ONO her art & legacy18/02/2023 Art installation, slide show, exhibition of archival material, sound piece on YOKO ONOs 80th Birthday. A retrospective of my works inspired by the work of Yoko Ono, meeting her, witnessing first hand a collection of her live performances & the Toilet Papers events I had the chance to work on with her. Slide show from my archive of works... [Read more] |
Jupiter Gallery, Penzance, Cornwall | Details |
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One Minute Film Festival24/09/2022 Two films made in collaboration with Gaia Hampson-Smith for the one minute film festival with CAMP membership Plymouth. Shown as a part of 40 one minute films & with live performances. https://www.camp-membership.org/camp-on-tour/ See my Vimeo for films Melissa Hampson-Smith 'Sculpture in Deep Space &Time' ... [Read more] |
Positive Lights Project, Exeter | Details |
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Ancient Materials, above & below11/10/2021 — 15/10/2021 Arts & science residency For this residency I took photos, shot film, made drawings, paintings & plan to create art-jewellery & sculpture pieces in the future. |
Mayes Creative online & in person in Cornwall Uk, St Ives, West Penwith | Details |
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Starlight residency24/05/2021 — 28/05/2021 Stars, Black Holes, Ancient Monuments in the Landscape that may align to the stars & the Milky Way. Creative responses set by artists & scientists in the group. |
Online & inperson with Mayes Creative St Ives, Cornwall UK, St Ives, west Penwith | Details |
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Dorstep Cornwall & The Anatomy of Design22/03/2021 — 01/04/2021 Art & Creatives community festival of workshops & Crit clubs. |
Online & out & About, ST Ives, Cornwall & wider Cornwall. | Details |
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Recording the ancient monuments & viatas of cornwall.01/03/2021 — ongoing En-plein air drawing & painting out in the Cornish Landscape. Recording the Ancient Monuments, Places & vistas of Cornwall that our ancestors would have experienced. To try & create a dialogue between a place then , now & for the future. |
Cornwall Uk | Details |