writing the story by Nina Meledandri

writing the story, 2022, handmade paper, pressed flowers, metallic thread, beads, 21 x 17” inches

“writing the story” is made of pressed petals that are suspended between two sheets of abaca.  Even when very thin, abaca is very strong (think tea bags) and is semi transparent.  The petals have been embroidered with cross stitches and some have been beaded.  I see the petals as akin to words on a page with the embellishments of the metallic stitching and beads referencing traditional “women’s work” of holding families and societies together.

Nina Meledandri, a native New Yorker lives and works in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY. After graduating with a BA from Hampshire College in Film/Photo Studios, she returned to NY and became a freelance photographer, published by the NYTimes Magazine, Architectural Digest, New York Magazine and the Village Voice and others.  In the early ’90’s she taught herself oil painting and began developing her language as an abstract painter.  In 2003 she joined the David Findlay Gallery where she had two solo shows. Subsequently she has shown throughout the City in both one person and group exhibitions. A cornerstone of Meledandri’s process is daily practice.  As a painter this takes the form of daily watercolors that she has been making since 1996 and as a photographer she has posted to three blogs each day since 2003. For the past five years, her studio practice has revolved around paper making and in 2022, Meledandri engaged in a year long daily paper making project: “The Alchemy of Paper”.  No matter her medium, her work is strongly rooted in her love of the natural world.