Melinda ('Min') May Jordi is 'minmayd'
'minmayd' is where your choice of art is an original one
Melinda Jordi was born and bred on Sydney’s Northern beaches and now works in a range of mediums, including: drawing, painting, print-making, and sculpture.
Melinda completed her Fine Arts Diploma at Meadowbank College of Fine Arts and her Bachelor of Art Education at University of NSW. Then, in 1996, Melinda used her travels to Central Australia, followed by Europe, as an integral focus for developing artworks in both printmaking, charcoal drawings, and paintings. Her paintings are predominately abstract. She creates collage-based works using mixed media, a range of papers, tapestry, wallpaper, and recycled prints. Melinda has a variety of colour combinations which she loves to explore.
Her recent ‘blue series’ entails four large interior/exterior art works based on the love of plants and the vibrancy nature has to offer. The vibrant blues in this series, give it its name: ’blue series.’ One out of the four of this series is currently on display at Smithmade Homewares in Balgowlah.
Melinda works in a studio space called ‘Underground Arts Space’ in Balgowlah, with other creatives and is currently completing commission-based work for the local community and people overseas. Melinda strongly maintains that the learning of any artistic practice is on-going, she is forever experimenting with new ideas and techniques in her artmaking. Her recent trip to Uluru and the discovery of the posca paint pen has allowed her to incorporate more desert colour combinations.
Melinda has had artworks on display at the Araluen Art Gallery and was involved in exhibitions at the local Community Centre of Alice Springs (1996) entitled ‘Small Minded’. This exhibition was a local exhibition of small-scale works ranging from drawings, prints, to mini sculptures. Melinda created three small woodcuts inspired by her desert surroundings and experiences at the time.
From there, Melinda travelled overseas and had small group exhibitions in London (West Norwood, Streatham and Brixton) and she later taught English/Art Workshops in Switzerland with the ‘Haus fuer Erwachsenenbildung’.
Melinda discovered a love for teaching English to international students. She made the experience of learning a new language fun, and engaging for the students, by incorporating the learning of artistic practices (where appropriate). At one of her learning to teach adults courses, in Bern (Switzerland), Melinda was offered a job by one of the assessors to teach English to international business students and to run a series of artistic learning workshops.
Returning home to the Northern Beaches, Melinda exhibited with UndergroundART Space, Warringah Art Prize (producing paintings in the General and Waste to Art categories): ‘Blue Interior’, ‘I’m an Art Fan’, ‘Spiked Drinks’, and ‘You Look so Good in Pink’.
Further to this, she exhibited a quirky sculptural piece at the Internationals Women’s Day Exhibition, in conjunction with Ryde Council: ‘Women are Sew Bright’ (2013). Melinda has also had three solo exhibitions ‘Perspectives’ at Angel Cafe, Queenscliff (2009), 'Fixations' (2012) and ‘Luminosity’ (2013) both at Fix8Gallery, Freshwater, where she sold more than half of her work at each showing.
Melinda’s more recent exhibition was where she collaborated with John Murray and Alison Finch in ‘A Recorded Trail’ at the Creative Art Space in Curl Curl (2019).
Overall, Melinda has a love of colour and design. She embraces the opportunity to find new treasures at council clean-ups and second-hand shops. She is often seen rummaging around second-hand stores to find that unique piece, or treasure, that someone else has discarded, which, in her mind, helps to recycle.
In the future, Melinda plans to work towards exhibitions and explore the notion of photography further. She will also remain focused upon her teaching of the Visual Arts and produce more commission-based artworks.
"Colour and I are one. I am a painter." Paul Klee, 1914
Women Are Sew Bright