ABOUT THE ARTIST

Melissa McMahon is a practicing artist, illustrator, graphic designer and maker based in Naarm (Melbourne), Australia.

She landed here in 2015, set up a studio, and immediately started finding her people — other artists, designers, and restless makers.

The last decade hasn’t been all gallery lights and clean hands; there were years spent in the corporate grind, paying rent and learning how to stay organised in the chaos. That “dirty” job turned out to be a strange blessing — it further developed her skills in organisation, project planning, and management, and how to just get things done. Now those skills are folding back into her creative life, fuelling a new chapter of art that finally feels like it’s got legs.

She is expanding into artist management (watch this space) and also developing a body of work that crosses illustration, design, and sculpture — pieces that speak in colour, form, and the beautiful mess of process.

CREATIVE MANIFESTO

I make things by hand because it’s the only way I know how to stay honest. Every smudge, tear, and crooked line is proof that I was here — thinking, trying, building.

I’ve never worked for a design studio, and I don’t want to. My clients are my community — friends, family, activists, educators — people doing real things in the real world. I design for them the way I make everything else: raw, quick, imperfect, alive.

I work with what’s around me — scraps, offcuts, found materials that still hum with old stories. Nothing is wasted - everything gets another chance. Even my screen prints are made from lino, rubber blocks and overhead transparency sheets, instead of proper printed screens — I like the fight in them, the resistance, the surprise of ink on fabric.

I make to connect. To stay human. To remind myself that creativity doesn’t live inside a screen or software subscription — it lives in our hands, in the messy middle, in the doing.

This is my practice. This is my protest.

CREATIVE BACKGROUND

EDUCATION

  • Post-Graduate Diploma in Art and Design, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland NZ 2012–2013 (1yr post-grad, graduated 2014)

  • Bachelor of Media Arts (Design), Waikato Institute of Technology, Hamilton NZ 1999–2001 (3yr degree, graduated 2002)

EXHIBITED

  • Ludicrous exhibition, The Meteor Theatre and Raglan Old School Arts Centre, Hamilton and Raglan NZ – 2018

  • Fringe Festival, Hamilton NZ – 2013 and 2014

    • Organised & curated the Sorry, We are Out of Space exhibition, and created ‘The Waiting Room”, an immersive, cosy lounge installation for patrons to hang in while waiting for perfomances to begin. The Meteor Theatre, Hamilton NZ – 2013

  • Raglan Arts Weekend (RAW), Raglan NZ – 2013 and 2014

  • Sustainable City Showcase, Auckland NZ – 2013

  • Revel Gallery, Auckland NZ – 2012

PUBLICATION & PRESENTATION

  • GOOD Magazine,Waste Not article, pages 48-52, Issue 37 Jul/Aug – 2014

  • Creative Mornings - REUSE talk, Auckland NZ – 2013

STUDIO MANAGEMENT

  • Hello, and Ahoy studios, gallery and shop, Raglan NZ – 2012–2014