MELONDY :: Issues of Adolescence

A mixed media series by Jacqueline Baerwald

Paint to Stimulate Thought

“You can read her like a book,” or can you?

My Melondy: Issues of Adolescence sculptures pose a series of unasked questions and unanswered issues often experienced in the lives of teenage girls.

The paintings, image and text, elicit pondering, reflection, and consideration of these issues whether personally experienced or observed.

Through this series of work I, as the artist, aspire to break myself and the viewer out of the all too pervasively entrenched bystander apathy, to awaken compassion, to be mindful of the deeper (tragically often darker) realities of fragile humans around us, and to make a difference.

Create to Connect Compassion with Conviction

Fabricated entirely from thrifted, found, or donated books and a bit of paint, the Melondy series is a compendium of high school hurdles, hiccups, and heartbreaks.

Every aspect of each sculpture was carefully selected.

Each book was specifically chosen for its title and meticulously stacked with its counterparts to create a thought-provoking found poem.

The whimsically painted character, “Melondy,” stands in for the average teenage girl imprisoned by insecurities, frustrations, and fears - her own, or those inflicted on her.

Her name was derived from the word melancholy, and her striped wardrobe is reminiscent of a prisoner’s garments.

Titles for each piece were chosen that play off childhood nursery rhymes or playground sayings, eliciting the innocence (or absence thereof) days gone by.

Each book stack reveals a story behind the teenage (often unconscious or unspoken) plea for meaning, maturity, and love.