Melissa grew up in Adelaide, inspired at an early age by her mother, a painter in oils and watercolours who had studied art in Melbourne. Both her parents encouraged in her a love of art and travel. Melissa studied as a Sculptor in South Australia’s School of Art before moving to Victoria to finish her Batchelor of Fine Arts at Monash University. She completed her Masters Degree of Creative Arts at James Cook university in Townsville in 2009.

Melissa has a strong passion for social justice and the environment. She has lived and worked in Mareeba over many years to support her arts practise and has held multiple solo and group exhibitions in the Far North Queensland region, interstate and overseas. She has curated cultural exchanges between Australian artists in the Far North and India and China. Her abstract work incorporates sculpture, collage, mixed media and painting.

Her art over the last five years has concentrated on nature closer to home, the myriad small worlds that mirror and connect with the larger environment. The challenges of bushfires, Covid, floods and life changes and disruptions has been a time for exploration of inner and outer landscapes providing new directions in her work.