Donna Melvin got interested in art while in high school and taking a class from local art teacher, Ed Harris. She got so excited in art that she went on to school at UNC-Pembroke and earned her B.S. in art.
ALL THINGS CREATIVE
Donna Melvin retired from teaching so that she could care for her grandchildren. She also is an art teacher to them and is pictured here with two of her grandchildren, Charlie and Emma Melvin.
Emma Melvin is following in her grandmother’s footprints and has come to love art at a very early age. She poses here in front of a painting that she did - inspired by getting in touch with her inner mouse. He painting hangs in the student gallery at her grandmother’s art studio in Elizabethtown.
The official welcoming and ribbon cutting by the Elizabethtown-White Lake area Chamber of Commerce was held at Art Works Teaching Studio, a new business opened by artist and teacher, Donna Melvin. The celebration was held with food and beverages at Melvin’s studio located at 340A Aviation Parkway.
ELIZABETHTOWN – Donna Melvin has been an artist since she was a teenager and her passion has driven her to teach, inspire, create and now in retirement, open her own art studio called “Art Works Teaching Studio.”
The business is located at 340A Aviation Parkway in Elizabethtown and on Oct. 25 the Elizabethtown-White Lake Area Chamber of Commerce officially welcomed the new business with a ribbon cutting.
Melvin grew up in Bladen County and she is a product of the Bladen County School System. She graduated from Tar Heel High School and got interested in developing her talents as an artist while in school.
“Ed Harris got me interested in art,” Melvin said. “He was my art teacher and I took art as a senior. I didn’t even know I was interested in art until I took his class. I was just so excited about it I went on to college and majored in it. In high school we did pottery, sculpting, painting and Petite. He tried to sprinkle all the disciplines of art. My favorite was painting of course.”
She went on to graduate with a B.S. in art from UNC- Pembroke (at the time was Pembroke State University) and from there decided to begin her teaching career.
“After I graduated, I got married and then started teaching,” she said. “We then moved to Illinois for a time before moving back and I taught in the Kings Mountain and Gastonia area. And then we came back home and I started teaching at East Bladen High School and taught there for 10 years before going over to teach at West Bladen for 10 years.”
Melvin retired in 2011 to take care of her grandchildren.
“When my granddaughter, Emma got into school, I decided I had to do something,” she said. “So, God put this in my lap. Just immediately. Put it in my lap. I did have an art studio when I retired, but it was mainly to teach my grandchildren. After a while, I just put it out there on Facebook that I was looking for about five students to come to my house for me to teach them some art lessons. I just posted, ‘retired art teacher looking for some students.’ I had 15 people in my inbox that night.”
The large crop of students led Melvin to start pursuing an actual location to set up a studio and she was referred to Bladen Blooming who was able to accommodate her with an office in the Elizabethtown- White Lake Chamber of Commerce building.
“I got so big, I needed this place,” she said. “I moved here in January, and I would have done a grand opening sooner, but I didn’t know how to go about a ribbon cutting, so I called Amy (Hudson) and I found out.”
The hours of the Art Works Teaching Studio are Monday-Thursday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Melvin said that her favorite type of painting to do is acrylic but she also does water color and really, she says that she teaches it all. Harris, she said had a profound influence on her work.
“I can do realism,” she said. “But I’m trying to get away from being so tight in my work and being a little more creative, but I still go back to that realism of Ed Harris. Photo realism is just amazing, but I also like the expressive. But… I’m an art teacher and although I love to paint, I really love to teach.”
As far as the future goes, Melvin said that she just wants to be where God wants her to be.
As the ribbon ceremony began, Melvin addressed the large crowd of followers and well-wishers including the Harris’, she said that her students ranged from 3-years-old to 78 years old and said that she taught all levels of art from pre-K through college level.
“Now I’m teaching anyone that wants to come,” she said.
With her grandchildren Emma and Charlie helping to work the scissors, the ribbon was cut and the business was officially and publicly welcomed to Elizabethtown.
Mark DeLap is a journalist, photographer and the editor and general manager of the Bladen Journal. To see more of his bio, visit him at markdelap.com or email him. Send a message to: mdelap@bladenjournal.com