So you want my arts job: Paper Artist

Artist Melinda Schawel shares her unconventional approach to paper as a versatile medium with a new show upcoming at Flinders Lane Gallery.
Melinda Schawel. Photo: Supplied. A digitally edited photo of a white middle-aged woman with half-tied back blond hair wearing an artist apron and smiling at the camera. She has been cropped onto a gradient green background with the words 'so you want my arts job?'

Melinda Schawel is a US-born, Melbourne-based artist who works predominantly in paper, exploring its limitless possibilities through textures, markings, colour and even sculptural forms.

Originally drawn towards documentary filmmaking, Schawel reconnected with her love of the visual arts while living in Japan, and is inspired by the concept of Akari, meaning brightness, clarity and positivity. She describes her practice as ultimately a transfer of energy, from the artist, onto the paper and then out to the viewers.

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Celina Lei is the Diversity and Inclusion Editor at ArtsHub. She acquired her M.A in Art, Law and Business in New York with a B.A. in Art History and Philosophy from the University of Melbourne. She has previously worked across global art hubs in Beijing, Hong Kong and New York in both the commercial art sector and art criticism. She took part in drafting NAVA’s revised Code of Practice - Art Fairs and was the project manager of ArtsHub’s diverse writers initiative, Amplify Collective. Most recently, Celina was one of three Australian participants in DFAT’s the Future of Leadership program. Celina is based in Naarm/Melbourne. Instagram @lleizy_