Words and Images, Real and Marvelous: The artwork of Melissa Croghan

Melissa Croghan's paintings and fat brush strokes of intensely vivid colors may resemble the dreams that words cannot describe.

"I think it all started with the land of Oz," Croghan said.

Croghan's father used to read to her from the L. Frank Baum The Wonderful Wizard of Oz series. Baum's fantastic descriptions are inspirational to Croghan's artistry.

"I try to make each piece of work original and give it a vibrating reality," Croghan said. "This fits in with the world of Oz."

Oz wasn't the only realm influential to Croghan as a visual artist. She has an extensive background in literature and writing receiving degrees from Temple and the University of Pennsylvania.

After eight years of teaching, Croghan grew unhappy with academia, though she had a passion for the poetry and painting she did for leisure.

She considers the Farmington Valley Arts Center, where she has studio space, as a venue to merge her two specialties - words and paintings.

"I realized I could connect my text and a visual story line," Croghan said.

Words continues to play a role in Croghan's paintings.

Her latest installment, the "Mother America" series, features one painting which has become a dialog for Croghan and visitors to her studio.

The painting features Lady Liberty floating above Croghan's Simsbury scenery. Croghan continues to change the text on descriptor tablets, which depending on the version, read "Brave Mother is Waiting," "Brave Mother is Watching" and most recently "Summon Our Better Angels."

Croghan changed the text according to America's fluctuating attitude during the post-9/11 period, the initial event prompting Croghan to begin the "Mother America" series in the first place.

A studio visitor recommended "Summon Our Better Angels" as words to compliment the painting, referencing Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address.

Lincoln said in one passage of the speech, "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

Croghan is pleased by visitors coming into her studio and commenting on her artwork in such a collaborative way. She acknowledged that people liked to be engaged in artwork.

"It really involved the community," Croghan said. "It's been really fun."

In general, Croghan's art actively communicates with people. Her style, which she calls a union between the "real and marvelous," motivates people to think about and view their world more deeply.       

"I want people to pay attention to their subconscious and to not just superficially glide over life," Croghan said.

Her style is something very original to her childhood ventures into Oz.

"I just have a wild imagination and I can't think in a straight line, ever," Croghan said.

Croghan recognizes a tension between her wild imagination and "objective reality." She isn't swayed by this though and is determined to excite the imagination and the brain.

"Why not give life this verve, this color, and enhance it more deeply?" Croghan asked.

Editor's Note: Everyone makes mistakes... even us! If there's something in the text or photo album that you think should be corrected, or if something else is amiss, give Local Editor Jessie Sawyer a ring at 860-356-6339 or shoot her an e-mail at Jessie.Sawyer@patch.com.