for better or worse, I'm Melanie Flood...

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Notions

October 3-November 28, 2020

Fourteen30 Contemporary

1501 SW Market Street Portland, OR 97201

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[Photograph by Melanie Flood 2020]

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Heathers

AMY BAY MELANIE FLOOD RAINEN KNECHT BOBBI WOODS

On view: July 15 - August 15, 2020.  [Timed Appointments only] Masks required. Hours [generally]: Wednesdays 3pm - 7pm Thursdays 3pm - 7pm Sundays 11am - 2pm

She lived in the house behind ours.  She was always a little wild.  She lived down the street and she was going with Mark Muchmore.  She did gymnastics and got big boils where her underwear rubbed against her skin.  She used to pop them and show me the craters that were left over.  Her mother got very upset when I said “Oh my god!”   We laughed all the time, especially when we jumped on her trampoline.  We would pee a little bit.  I don’t remember any in college.  We worked together.  She was very sincere and sweet and excited about the world.  We helped her move to a new apartment and all her belongings fit in the back of our car.  She had beautiful blue eyes and her cheeks always had a little flush of red. She was open to everything but sort of innocent and naive and had never watched an episode of The Simpsons so she never knew what we were talking about.  She’s too didactic.  It’s condescending.  She doesn’t give you space and time to think for yourself.  She’s super smart and brave for leaving that guy.  She somehow manages to live on very little but is content.  She packed much less than I did.  She was a tanguista. 

She only knows one Heather.  She never did see all the movies everyone says you are supposed to see.  Didn’t see Psycho or Apocalypse Now or The Outsiders.  Oh Patrick Swayze was so cute in The Outsiders!  They were all cute!  C. Thomas Howell and who played Ponyboy? Ralph Macchio!  She saw him in a movie recently and he looks terrible.  Didn’t even recognize him.  But Rob Lowe has been off drugs since the 90s and he looks exactly the same. Gorgeous. Haha. She plastered her walls with photos, mostly of bands, and splattered them with paint.  She had art posters – some impressionist painting – but hadn’t really done that kind of thing since before she left home.  And Everything But the Girl and Matisse’s Blue Nude and some André Derain painting and Hairspray.  Did you read the John Waters book? The first half is what he thought it should have been and the second was how it actually was.  And she used to have that whole scene from Trading Places memorized but can’t remember it all now because she has lost brain cells.  She’s moving away this summer.  Back home.  It’s the best decision but it’s so fucking sad.  She doesn’t know what is happening with her show. Oh Backstreet Boys! No, it was New Kids on the Block.  She had a New Kids on the Block Poster.  Wasn’t Menudo the first boy band? Her best friend was named Heather. She lived in a hotel instead of a dorm.  The room was way too small to hang anything on the walls.  The students were mixed in with other tenants and once a 90 year old lady died in one of the rooms and they didn’t find her for a week.  

The plan was to name me Heather, but then my Mother watched Gone with the Wind and named me after a character from the movie. ‘Call me you piece of yat!’ She wrote it on the back of a business card I had made on one of those mall business card machines for the fanzine I had just started. She would always leave a mouthful of Peach Tea Snapple in the bottle. She would save half smoked cigarettes, half eaten Tootsie Roll pops and I knew her to take chewing gum out before a make out session, sticking it on the sofa to chew on later. I was in the room with her when she gave her first blow job. She barfed on Dave’s stomach. 

I can feel exhibitionism throbbing in my veins.

Divine as Dawn Davenport John Waters’ Female Trouble, 1974

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CHALLAH

TESTING 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 does anyone use Tumblr anymore? It's been a while since I logged in...

[melanieflood]

"And if that rainbow backdrop didn’t inspire the album artwork for Drake’s Nothing Was the Same then I don’t know what did."

[surplusspace-blog]

Surplus Space is accepting proposals for three guest curators for 2015. Each month of our final year we’re inviting a different guest curator to program Surplus Space. Our hope is that with an open call we’ll receive a diverse selection of proposals to fill our remaining three 2015 slots. All...

[melanieflood]

Maria Antelman: A Non-Existent Event

Melanie Flood Projects is pleased to present A Non-Existent Event, an exhibition of new work by New York-based artist Maria Antelman. Antelman’s installation is comprised of a sound piece, a sculpture and a series of collages. In addition to the exhibition, the artist will screen her latest video For Your Eyes Only at Portland’s Upfor Gallery on Wednesday, January 28 at 6 pm.

I'm really thrilled about re-launching my curatorial endeavor Melanie Flood Projects in downtown Portland. Please come on down and introduce yourself.

[melanieflood]

Please join me and the Photography Department of PNCA this Thursday from 6-8pm for the opening reception of the very last show in our Corner Gallery

SURFACE a group show juried by Melanie Flood featuring the work of PNCA students:

Ciara J Alberts Michael Cavanaugh Ashley Cozetto Joe Greer Ally Hulsey Ashley Innis Xavier Ness Danny Pavis

opening reception: Thursday December 4, 6-8pm up now through December 16, 2014

The Corner Gallery PNCA 1241 NW Johnson Street Portland, OR 97209

image by Xavier Ness

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Please join us for Short Stories Vol. 2, a two person show presenting work by Teresa Christiansen and Melanie Flood at Black Box Gallery, Portland, OR. Opening Reception Saturday, October 25, 6-8pm October 25 and 26, 2014 Hours: 12-5pm Black Box Gallery 811 East Burnside, Suite 212 Portland, OR http://blackboxgallery.com/ Teresa Christiansen and Melanie Flood met in New York City in 2009, both relocated to Portland, OR in 2010, and shortly thereafter founded Picture Time, a critique group dedicated to image based practices. They have exhibited work together in several group shows locally, in New York and Philadelphia. This is the first presentation of their work exclusively in the context of one another. Both artists maintain rigorous photographic studio practices and are invested in the role that experimentation plays in their process. www.teresachristiansen.com www.melanieflood.com

[melanieflood]

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. … No artist is pleased. No satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.

Martha Graham

[melanieflood]

http://collectdotgive.org/editions/melanie-flood/

For $100 you can own one of my photographs & support two great organizations- collect.give and Mental Health America.

September is national suicide awareness month. In loving memory of my friend Sasha Wolfe, I will donate 100% of proceeds to Mental Health America, the nation’s oldest advocacy organization addressing the full spectrum of mental health and substance use conditions. MHA is dedicated to promoting mental health, preventing mental and substance use conditions and achieving victory over mental illnesses and addictions through advocacy, education, research and service.

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[melanieflood]

I was thinking about Amanda Ross-Ho in the shower, Loofahs on hand-drilled particle board, 8' x 4' © 2012 Melanie Flood after, Expose for the Shadows, Develop for the Highlights (Perforated Sampler): White Light, Crewel Point, Triangle 208.33%, Glasses (His), Portrait (Hers). 2010. Hand-drilled Sheetrock, wood, latex paint, chromogenic color prints, CNC-cut acrylic, acrylic on canvas, 96 x 72 x 5″ (243.8 x 182.9 x 12.7 cm). © 2010 Amanda Ross-Ho