Wyndham Vale artist Melissa Murphy-Vella with her son James. 80500 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
By ALESHA CAPONE
WHEN Melissa Murphy-Vella was aged 15, she created a clay crocodile sculpture during a school art class.
This kick-started Ms Murphy-Vella’s lifelong love of art, and she went on to study Fine Arts at the Victorian College of the Arts.
Nowadays, the Wyndham Vale resident is a visual artist, in the areas of sculpture, ceramics, photography, graphic design, painting and drawing – and she also plays the piano and drums.
Before giving birth to her young son James, the multi-talented mum was visual arts co-ordinator at Thomas Carr College in Tarneit, where she recently returned to work part-time.
“With teaching, I enjoy being able to help students and get them engaged and help them to love art,” she said.
Ms Murphy-Vella said she also enjoyed the challenges posed by her many creative past-times.
One of her artworks, a bronze sculpture, took around six months to make.
“I like a lot of my pieces, I guess because of the challenge you have to put yourself through to achieve it, without being distracted,” she said.
“Once you’ve done it, it’s worth it.”
Ms Murphy-Vella said her Anglo-Indian heritage has influenced much of her art, which often explores the themes of secrets and spacial relationships between interiors and exteriors.
She said the main challenge of being both an artist and new mother was finding time to work on her art.
Ms Murphy-Vella has a studio at Fundere Fine Arts in Footscray, but has barely had time to visit since James was born.
However, with her son recently turning one, Ms Murphy-Vella said she was keen to get back into art.
“There are a few different ideas that I have, I really love bronze work and I’m very interested in public sculpture,” she said.
