____Melissa Burgess began painting with oils over twenty years ago doing figurative work on discarded scraps of wood found around the eroding building she was living in at the time. Predominately capturing her neighborhoods and their environs, Melissa evokes a feel of shaky permanence that can be wiped clean in one cool sweep by developers, or by decay. Over the next few years she expanded her focus from portraits and interiors to include the architectural rich exteriors of buildings.

____In 1990 Melissa moved to Boston and became immersed in the various ethnic communities surrounding her and soon brought this inspiration into her paintings. A continued interest in Southern landscape eventually brought Melissa back to her hometown of Richmond, Virginia

____Melissa has received accolades from her peers and the media as an unofficial trustee of preserver of places and objects most people would deem mundane. But once captured in oils the often overlooked becomes aesthetic expression featured in galleries in Richmond, Boston, Korea and China.