Melinda Steffy

Constellation 1
Acrylic chalk paint on stitched canvas
2025
Size varies from 11"x11" to 13"x13"

#VisualArt #AbstractArt #GeometricAbstraction #Painter #PhillyArtist #DelcoArtist #QuiltBlock #Stars #StarQuilt

These are inspired by the 5 Romance languages that were recorded as #55Greetings & sent into space on the #VoyagerGoldenRecord: Portuguese, Romanian, French, Spanish & Italian. Here, my visual translation is nearly erased, except for the outline, as if the meaning didn't quite survive the journey.

This batch of paintings are completely un-screen-friendly and there is no way to show the subtle details and textures here. 🤷🏼 But I like them, and you will too if you come visit my studio to see them in person.

SONG 1: Booth Killed Lincoln
acrylic on wood panel, based on a 19th-century folk ballad, as sung by Bascom Lamar Lunsford
24”x42”
2018

SONG 2: God Moves on the Water
acrylic on wood panel, based on a blues song by Blind Willie Johnson
24”x30”
2018

SONG 3: Great Dust Storm
acrylic on wood panel, based on a folk ballad by Woody Guthrie
36”x42”
2018

SONG 4: Ruination Day
acrylic on wood panel, based on a song by Gillian Welch
24”x18”
2018

⚡ Shout out to @tsanetwork Philly for hosting the first exhibition of this work back in 2019, to @besadmusic for their incredible performance in the gallery, and to @inliquid for including the first 3 songs in their current exhibit at Park Towne Place.

🎉 And hbd to this kid, who was 3 in the picture and turns 9 tomorrow, who had the good fortune to be born the day AFTER Ruination Day.

Ah, another #RuinationDay passing us by. April 14: a day of disasters memorialized in American folk & blues music, which I translated into artwork from 2018-2019.

I worked with 4 songs, pulling on threads of repetition & nuance, oral history & storytelling. (Photos + details in 🧵)

Hand holding a fine point pen, making a line drawing of a geometric star pattern.

This drawing got moved to the back burner for a while. Gotta pick it up again if I'm ever going to finish it!

Inspired by the #55Greetings that were sent into space on the #VoyagerGoldenRecord. This one will have 160 "double star" blocks, for the 160 dialects of English spoken around the world.

Millions Stood Up: April 5 Hands Off Day of Action I was the closing speaker at the ebullient San Francisco Hands Off rally, and when I got home later I scoured the news for  reports on the more than one thousand other rallies. Of course people would ...

If one of us stands up, they can pick that person off. If ten or a hundred or a thousand, they can pick those people off. And they're picking off people--immigrants, dissidents--to make an example of them. But if ten million people stand up, they cannot stop us all.

It is mine! Called a hellebore or a Lenten rose, one of the first plants to bloom at the end of winter

Dark purple-black flower

💜 this plant. #hellebore

👀 can you spot two of my #RuinationDay Song paintings?

Tabby cat snuggled in a paint-covered drop cloth

Cat found his cozy spot in my art studio.

#ArtistStudio #StudioCat #Painter

Cluster of African violet flowers in bright purple

Today's beauty 💜

#AfricanViolet #Houseplants #IndoorGarden

Wooden stretcher bars put together in a square frame, sitting on a table next to piles of other stretcher bars

Been a minute since I stretched a canvas. Circa 2008, I would guess. I forgot how annoying it is to get the corners square...

#AbstractArt #GeometricAbstraction #VisualArtist #WorkInProgress

Painting of a star-based quilt pattern in shades of gray and white, with one bright green corner.

Greeting No. 38: Mandarin
✴️
2024
24"x24"
Acrylic on wood panel
Based on the 55 Greetings sent into space on the Voyager Golden Record

#55Greetings #VoyagerGoldenRecord #CarlSagan #InformationArt #GeometricArt #AbstractArt #PhillyArtist #DelcoArtist #Quilt #Star