Melissa Stephens Art

Want to hear something crazy? I have a work of art currently on display in the Palmer Museum of Art, Penn State’s art museum! Palmer has, in its permanent collection, works by many notable artists including 2 of my absolute art heroes, painter Georgia O’Keeffe, and glass blower, Dale Chihuly. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed visiting two museums entirely dedicated to their work: the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe and the Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle. Imagine, one of my creations hanging in the same building as those 2 greats, that’s crazy!

My piece of art was chosen for Palmer’s new exhibition titled, “Dreaming American Futures: Invitational 250,” in celebration of the 250^th anniversary of our nation. The museum published a call for entries late last year with a deadline for submission in mid-February. Applicants were required to be current Penn State students, faculty, or staff OR Penn State alumni residing in the state of Pennsylvania OR local artists living within a 50-mile radius of State College. As a proud alumnus currently residing in State College, I checked 2 of those boxes. 

Submitted works were juried by a panel of artists, curators, faculty, and museum directors and were required to relate to one or more of the following themes: 
* Activating change
* Pursuit of happiness
* Bridging the divide
* A more perfect union

Nearly 300 pieces of art were submitted by 135 artists. 50 were selected for the show. Regardless of whether mine was the 1^st or the 50^th chosen (I’ll never know), it was chosen, for which I am incredibly honored. However, far more than the success of my submission, I’m most proud of the transition this piece represents in my work. What started as a crazy idea, assembling scraps of vintage paper into a representation of a distinctly American art form, the crazy quilt, became a meaningful process for self-discovery and change. 

For 7-ish years I’ve “followed the leader” in my art, recycling the ideas, designs, and techniques of the artists and teachers I’ve learned from, both online and in-person. This project, however, is entirely original. I pondered the prompt; formulated an idea; researched historical context; gathered visual inspiration; tried, failed, and tried again to create the work; and then connected the dots from my past to the prompt in the written artist statement (below).  “Crazy” is unlike anything I’ve made before. It isn’t another bright, colorful abstract floral riff, a “cover” of another artist’s hit song. It’s authentic, I wrote the lyrics, I composed the melody. With each scrap of paper I cut and embroidery stitch I sewed; I sang my own tune. In Jerry Saltz’s excellent book, How To Be An Artist, he says “whatever you’re creating makes you more than you were before you made it.” Crazy? Not in the case of this 24 square inch paper quilt! Making it both deepened my trust and emboldened my confidence in myself, my crazy creative ideas, my gritty determination (to meet that deadline), and my stubborn optimism.

I braved a boatload of self-doubt before finally clicking “submit,” flip-flopping between “I love it” and “I love it NOT!” like a love-struck pre-teen plucking petals from a daisy. I couldn’t decide if it was amazing or awful. Fortunately, there was no submission fee and I’m relatively new to town, which affords me a degree of anonymity. What did I have to lose? Plus, did I mention my stubborn optimism?

Acceptance is wonderful; but rejection would have been ok too. The process of making “Crazy” made me more than I was before. It gave me permission to explore the musical vault of my own personal experience, to sway to the rhythms of my own creative drums. The crazy thing is that I know there’s even more meaningful art inside me, whole concerts waiting to be tuned into and played!

The Palmer exhibit will be on display until 11/29/2026. It includes paintings, drawings, sculpture, ceramics, mixed-media assemblages, photographs, installation art, and more. I walked through yesterday and found the show incredibly powerful. Each artist’s statement and work explores the “common threads of family memories, historical legacies, the American Dream, freedom of speech, the fragility and beauty of democracy, and cultural identities enriched by a long history of immigration.” (quote from the museum’s written overview). My artist statement for “Crazy” is as follows: 

Crazy quilts, inspired by the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, are an American-born art form. They are rich tapestries of haphazard shapes and fabrics embellished with extravagant needlework. Many of these historic quilts remain treasured family heirlooms, including one created by my grandmother, a prolific quilter. My interpretation, “Crazy,” combines bits of handmade new and collected vintage papers (some from my own family) intermingled with today’s cardboard packaging.

Juxtaposing past and present, “Crazy,” like our societal landscape, is a diverse patchwork of shape, texture, and color. Each piece, each stitch, represents a moment in our country’s storied, at times tumultuous, 250-year history. Mended together, made one, this quilt celebrates the vision of a “more perfect union” toward which we continue to strive.

*Note: this is less than the 125-word limit for submissions, uncommon brevity for me 🙂

Some of the featured papers in the piece:
-Postcard addressed to my Grandfather Baugher (1907)
-Western Union telegram to Art’s grandmother (1942)
-Art’s mother’s Word Finder book (with “celebrate” highlighted)
-1949 Farmer’s Almanac
-“Star Spangled Banner” and “America The Beautiful” sheet music
-Elementary Arithmetic book (1884) with handwritten signature and bird doodle by David Zimerman
-Family Stamps (circa 1960’s, a later version of S&H Green Stamps)
-Department of Forestry’s Pennsylvania Trees book (1915)
-1 cent stamps
-Simplicity sewing patterns
-Hand painted papers (purple)
-Amazon and BOSU cardboard packaging (present)