Meet the Artist
Melanie Pruitt
A bit about me:
I experience the world and life in an amplified way. I feel things deeply and express things strongly. When I walk through a garden, I don’t just see the garden, I FEEL the garden! I am moved by nature. God speaks to me through the stillness of the rainforest, the brightness of color, the playful wildlife, and the bright sunshine contrasted by the dark shadows. My paintings are saturated with these experiences and feelings.
Like everyone else, my heart desires to be filled with love and hope, to celebrate in joy and to find tranquility leading to true peace. I have a tenderness towards those that are facing hard times making it hard to find these things. I too have faced some very difficult, dark and lonely times in my life. My greatest hope is that my artwork would be a resource both for those needing and those that want to share, joy, peace, love and hope with others.
“aloha kekahi i kekahi” (Love One Another) John 13:34
I have been a creative person all my life, but I didn’t really understand that because so much of my creativity came in the form of physical movement. When I was a teenager, I was a springboard diver. I also enjoyed gymnastics, though my sister was the true gymnast. In later years, I poured creativity into my presentations as a motivational speaker. I also taught Creative Movement with preschoolers, and pre-ballet, as well as taking Adult Ballet classes myself. I assisted yearly both onstage and backstage with the Nutcracker Ballet at my daughters pre-professional dance studio (my daughter was the REAL Ballerina!)
In 2001 a virus left me with a post-infectious chronic illness taking away my physical abilities. This led me to the wonderful discovery of my creative self in painting! I began with watercolor and still love the dance between water and paint and find every painting an adventure! I have been selling my artwork since 2005.
Meet the Team
Bill and Melanie Pruitt
A bit about us:
I want to introduce you to my teammate, my best friend, my long time love. We met when I was in 6th grade, began dating just out of high school, and married in early 1980's. He is quiet, shy, and incredibly funny! We enhance each other's personalities: his calm and gentle ways, to my outgoing and expressive ways. We have three children and our favorite part of life now is being Nonnie and Papa!
Bill spent 23 years as an associate pastor in Washington state. For 16 of those years, he was also dealing with all the losses and grief we both faced with my illness and taking on more and more of my responsibilities, while he watched his wife withering away. After much prayer, It was a mutual decision to move to Hawaii so we could recapture some life with the improvement of health I experience here.
Bill is extremely gifted and talented. He has a great eye for design and has designed both of my websites. He's a gifted writer and teacher, and you will get to benefit from some of his writing and teaching here at "Art Lifting Hearts."
He is also the business manager of both Art Lifting Hearts, and Melanie Pruitt Art, helping manage our galleries, our bookkeeping, our inventory and our communications.
Best of all, we work so well together, that we love all the hours we spend brainstorming, hashing out ideas, and bringing our ideas to reality. Neither the Encouragement Initiative, nor Melanie Pruitt Art would exist without his behind the scenes work and his encouragement of me as an artist.
