Melissa Kay Glaze, a senior pursuing a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting, will hold her senior exhibition of paintings and performance art at East Tennessee State University’s Slocumb Galleries from May 1-5. A reception for the artist will be held on Friday, May 1 from 5-7 p.m.
Glaze’s exhibition will be titled “Connection” and will consist of her performance art and viewers will be able to watch Glaze making new pieces. She will begin her performances each day of the week at noon and conclude when the artist feels finished.
Glaze began showing her performance art while enrolled in a combined media course. She studied further into this style of art taking an independent study course in performance art. During that course Glaze put on three performances, two of them, “Vibrations in Color” and “Naked Before Thee” took place on campus and the third, “Personal Space” was held in a hotel room at the Carnegie.
Her performances evolved from her paintings, which have always worked to convey movement, energy and space. “Alone in my studio, closed away where no one else could see me, I began to experiment with my body. I would allow my body to arch, weave and curve; losing myself, and enjoying the pulsations of brush across surface.” Glaze said.
She said she believes in a close relationship between painting and dancing and is interested in the energy that people carry with them. “I moved with the rhythms of the music playing, as well as to my own natural rhythms. I allowed myself to go into heady states of trance, and exist entirely within that force. I allowed my body to be a vehicle and to except the current that runs through it.”
Glaze is also working with painting with a live band, The Johnny Mac Trio, and performs her own singer-songwriter style music.
Slocumb Galleries is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.