Melissa has always leaned towards being a creative. She is a self-taught artist who, only recently, started taking workshops and classes to expand her knowledge of techniques and processes. In the mid 1990s, Melissa painted residential murals and faux finishes. In 2002, she put the brushes down and worked almost exclusively as a freelance graphic designer allowing her to spend more time at home raising her two children with her husband Brett. Her focus in design was corporate identity, event branding and illustration in the fashion industry. In 2016, Melissa picked the brushes back up and has been creating contemporary abstract waterscapes and landscapes that have been very well received by collectors all over the United States. 

Melissa is inspired by natural, earthy tones from the nature around her home in Encinitas, CA. She loves to explore the use of many thin, translucent layers, and an occasional, subtle hit of metallic paint to create the unexpected results from one canvas to the next.