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My Name is Melissa Magua. I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1994. My nationality is Lebanese hence the unfamiliar surname. I have constantly created art since the young age of 4, and had a clear vision during my school years that I wanted to become a practicing artist and work within the field of art. I am currently completing my National Diploma in Visual at the University of Johannesburg and furthermore plan to complete a Bachelor of Technology degree in Visual art. I am an extremely bold individual and I try to emanate and reflect that element of my personality within my art
It is important for me to establish a style that is unique and identifiable. During my third year exploration, I have chosen to work with hands as my main subject matter. I have always seen hands as interesting objects to explore and within my work I explored how I can manipulate the hands to look beastly, non human like and furthermore place them in difference environments such as water to change the distortion and size of the hands.
Through choosing to explore hands, my previous works have influenced my current works to go into greater depths and explore the linear movement and pattern found within the palm of the hand. Unique patterns that surface the palm of the hands reflect individual identity as every person has a unique line movement, and that is where I see my body of work developing into; weaving identity and creating relationships between different identities and line configuration. Within my large scale drawings and paintings my aim is to confront the viewer with an up-close and personal depiction of the inner hand made by using different materials to represent skin and the line that interrupts the skin on the surface.